Carrying a gun with kids is hard - Gotta be careful!!!

Terrible event and something that will affect this man the rest off his days. Unless it's OWB in a holster, I've never completely felt comfortable carrying a pistol (I pocket carry) unless it has a thumb safety.

I pocket carried a DAO .380 in a pocket holster throughout all the wrestling and horseplay of my son's childhoods and never felt there was the remotest chance of it ADing. The story is awful. Many will scoff, but it's another example of why I won't carry a striker-fired pistol in the pocket or IWB.

Tragic. Thing that doesn't make sense to me is how a gun tucked in the back of pants discharges and hits both victims in the head? Maybe it fell out and got bumped? Seems almost impossible that it got twisted around and fired while still in the pants.

So...no holster.

Tragic. Kids do unexpected things, like reach into your pocket when you are looking the other way. I pocket-carry a hammer-fired, DAO, pistol with a good safety, in a good pocket holster. When I’m not around kids, and in some potentially risky environment, it is easy enough to disengage the safety while still holstered and in the pocket.

Wrestling with your kids could actually be a good test in a way. If a person can't do that without their gun going off or falling out, how the hell do they expect to be able to fight for real while wearing that weapon? Do they think that they're somehow magically guaranteed that they'll be able to have their gun in hand prior to the fight starting? Do they think that every fight will justify drawing that weapon before any "wrestling" occurs? Pretty incredible how naive some folks can be.

bearcreek said:

Wrestling with your kids could actually be a good test in a way.

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Given the event described in the OP , I think I'll pass.

That's the only reason I don't carry. As much as I should , and want to, if I ever dropped a gun or some crap like this and shot one of my girls I'd never be able to live with it.

Very sad, and very avoidable. I tustle with my kids with my round chambered IWB Glock quite often. However, it is securely in its place within its holster. If the playing gets too serious it’s out and in its nightstand safe.

So tragic, and that dad had to learn the hardest way to take carrying a gun seriously.

So when I started carrying the accidental discharge was a big consideration for me because of my kids. That is why I carry a S&W Shield with a safety. There is a lot of debate about having a safety on your carry gun but if you train with it I have not noticed it being a hindrance.

Waveski said:

Given the event described in the OP , I think I'll pass.

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Your choice of course. Obviously if you were doing such a "test" you'd have the gun unloaded. That wasn't really my point though. You should be able to literally have a knock down, drag out, biting, punching, kicking, wrestling full on fight while wearing your pistol. The events in the OP happened because the guy didn't know what he was doing and was carrying the gun wrong.

Tragic, indeed.

However, I submit that when one carries, part of your responsibility is to consider what activities ought not be engaged in in the first place.

For example, we already know that one aspect of carrying is to be observant and avoid potential confrontations which have the possibility of violence in the first place.

The same philosophy should be applied with other activities.

There are a whole lot of other mitigating or compounding issues, too. Was a holster used or not? If so, what kind of holster was it? What kind of pistol was it? Did it have a manual safety of some kind, or not? How about the condition of the firearm? If you need to remove the firearm, can you do so with the pistol remaining in it's holster (safest method), or do you have to unholster it? Where was the pistol carried on the person's body?

I carry all the time. However, I wouldn't carry for certain activities. I wouldn't, for example, carry if I were engaging in certain sporting activities...like football, for example. I would not carry if I were engaging in wrestling activities (either sporting or play), because wrestling involves a lot of clinging and grappling. I would not carry if I were sparring with my brother in martial arts.

Carrying requires us to THINK about the potential consequences of our actions...or lack thereof.

Exactly 0% of the blame can be put on the gun.

Walkalong said:

Stupidity killed that child, damn shame. Let it be a lesson.

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There is a brief article and what happened isn't all that clear. Anything could've happened from intent to harm, negligence, a temporary lapse of judgement, or just an accident.

bearcreek said:

Your choice of course. Obviously if you were doing such a "test" you'd have the gun unloaded. That wasn't really my point though. You should be able to literally have a knock down, drag out, biting, punching, kicking, wrestling full on fight while wearing your pistol. The events in the OP happened because the guy didn't know what he was doing and was carrying the gun wrong.

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Horrible story, can’t imagine.


Bearcreek does have a point. Yeah of course don’t try this with a loaded pistol but I can’t imagine how many times LEO’s have fought and wrestled with a loaded Glock pistol in a proper holster.

I’ve heard of tests being done by tossing or dropping a UNLOADED, cocked pistol to insure that the striker or hammer doesn’t fall.

Horrible, horrible. Not keeping one in the pipe would have prevented this tragedy.

RetiredUSNChief said:

There are a whole lot of other mitigating or compounding issues, too. Was a holster used or not? If so, what kind of holster was it? What kind of pistol was it? Did it have a manual safety of some kind, or not? How about the condition of the firearm? If you need to remove the firearm, can you do so with the pistol remaining in it's holster (safest method), or do you have to unholster it? Where was the pistol carried on the person's body?

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If you read the article, it says it was a Glock that was tucked in his pants in the small of his back...

Dfwkid said:

Horrible, horrible. Not keeping one in the pipe would have prevented this tragedy.

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True, it would have. Not keeping one in the pipe not only prevents the gun from going off when it's carried in a negligent and/or idiotic manner, it often also prevents the gun from going off when you want/need it to. The alternative is to carry it in a good holster mounted in a good location.

Very sad. Ridicule on the man won't make him feel worse than I'm sure he already does. I just couldn't imagine. I carry sun up till bed time, have 2 very young children (2 1/2 and 8 mo.) And don't see this as a problem for me as I wear a proper holster on a proper belt and the closest thing I've had to my gun moving at all is the few times my magazine was somehow released, even that is embarrassing enough . I'll pray for this guys family and hope others can learn from his mistake. Shame the media is so uninformed and biased that the actual story may never be known.

I re-read the thread ; I do not see where anyone sought to ridicule the dad in the incident.
It is reasonable and normal to try to determine and understand just how such a tragic unintentional shooting occurred.
In the course of doing that , it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the tragedy was completely avoidable , and that the adult involved does have a degree of responsibility for what happened , however horrific it is to process that thought.
It happened. We have a responsibility to learn and avoid.