4 Year Old Shoots Babysitter Wow...Who would have thought?

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I'm suprised nobody else brought this up.

A 4 year old shot his babysitter after having his foot stepped on. The weapon used? A shotgun.

Now, for me...I'm curious as to how the 4 year old even knew how to shoot a shotgun. Along with this, why was a loaded gun laying around in a place that the child could find it in the first place? I highly doubt that a child that young would be able to load and *BLEEP* the weapon by himself.

Full story here:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28512318/?GT1=43001


What are your views on this? And how do you think that he should be charged?

Personally, I don't think that he fully understands the situation and what "death" really is. I think he is still in the age where dead people are just those you won't see again, and nothing else.

Or maybe he didn't even understand that he could have killed the babysitter?

For the record - the babysitter lived(in case you didn't read the story) but it still doesn't take away from the seriousness of the situation.

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

(edited due to Typo)

I'm suprised nobody else brought this up.

 

A 4 year old shot his babysitter after having his foot stepped on. The weapon used? A shotgun.

 

Now, for me...I'm curious as to how the 4 year old even knew how to shoot a shotgun. Along with this, why was a loaded gun laying around in a place that the child could find it in the first place? I highly doubt that a child that young would be able to load and *BLEEP* the weapon by himself.

 

Full story here:

 

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/28512318/?GT1=43001

 

 

What are your views on this? And how do you think that he should be charged?

 

Personally, I don't think that he fully understands the situation and what "death" really is. I think he is still in the age where dead people are just those you won't see again, and nothing else.

 

Or maybe he didn't even understand that he could have killed the babysitter?

 

For the record - the babysitter lived(in case you didn't read the story) but it still doesn't take away from the seriousness of the situation.

Ah hello there 4yr boy? Read the 1st paragraph of the story.

JACKSON, Ohio - Police say a 4-year-old boy in southern Ohio shot his babysitter because the sitter accidentally stepped on his foot. Police said 18-year-old Nathan Beavers and several other teenagers were babysitting several young children in a mobile home in Jackson on Sunday when the shooting occurred.

Police said 18 year old Nathan Beavers and several other teenages. There is your answer right there clear as day. for one nomatter the gauge of the shotgun a 4yr could never handle it much less shoot it. not to even say hold the darn thing. a loaded shotgun is pretty heavy. too heavy for a child that age to hold. I bet you anything in the next day or so we will heave that charges have been filed on one of the other deenagers.

Edited January 7, 2009 by Echo_of_thunder (see edit history)

[Mordent 0]

I still find it amusing that it's part of your constitution (or somesuch) that you're allowed to actually own weapons like that. As for whether the four year old could load and fire the shotgun themselves...dubious, but I'd imagine that it does come down to the word of the other teenagers in this one. None of them would admit to leaving a loaded shotgun around, so why not blame the child, who can't be prosecuted (at least not in the UK) due to their age? It's a no-brainer, really. The next question, of course, is whether it was actually an accident or not. Sure, there's no doubt that someone got shot (and was in fact lucky they only suffered "minor pellet wounds to his arm and side"), but who's to blame? If the person who was shot had suffered a more serious injury or in fact died, would that make a difference?Now, realistically, you can't expect 4 year olds to be able to do all of the above without some kind of assistance (intentional or otherwise). The actual act of loading and so on likely isn't beyond the physical ability of a persistent 4 year old (after all, what is? ) but having the know-how of how to do it is almost certainly a smidgen beyond them.Now, assuming that the shotgun was loaded and so on beforehand, them pulling the trigger isn't such an infeasible event. Whether it was an accident or not, though, will remain something for whatever legal system you have over there to decide. Still makes for a nice bit of ammunition in the anti-firearm's case over here in the UK, however.

Edited January 7, 2009 by Mordent (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I still find it amusing that it's part of your constitution (or somesuch) that you're allowed to actually own weapons like that. As for whether the four year old could load and fire the shotgun themselves...dubious, but I'd imagine that it does come down to the word of the other teenagers in this one. None of them would admit to leaving a loaded shotgun around, so why not blame the child, who can't be prosecuted (at least not in the UK) due to their age? It's a no-brainer, really. The next question, of course, is whether it was actually an accident or not. Sure, there's no doubt that someone got shot (and was in fact lucky they only suffered "minor pellet wounds to his arm and side"), but who's to blame? If the person who was shot had suffered a more serious injury or in fact died, would that make a difference?
Now, realistically, you can't expect 4 year olds to be able to do all of the above without some kind of assistance (intentional or otherwise). The actual act of loading and so on likely isn't beyond the physical ability of a persistent 4 year old (after all, what is? ) but having the know-how of how to do it is almost certainly a smidgen beyond them.

Now, assuming that the shotgun was loaded and so on beforehand, them pulling the trigger isn't such an infeasible event. Whether it was an accident or not, though, will remain something for whatever legal system you have over there to decide. Still makes for a nice bit of ammunition in the anti-firearm's case over here in the UK, however.

About the weapon being loaded or not, I know tons of people who leave their weapons loaded.

Now, I also come from the country, but the location to me should be irrelevant.

The way to look at it is....Someone is breaking into your house, or is already in(you're asleep). Do you seriously have time to go find the weapon, find the ammo, load it and *BLEEP* it before they get to you? Probably not. So leaving it loaded would be much safer than leaving it unloaded.

As for the child though...If it was a loaded weapon it should be to where they can not get to it. But does that mean that one of the other teens took it out for him and/or were the actual shooter? No.

Unless there is a video or something of the situation(some homeowners do set up cameras to catch their babysitters stealing and whatnot) then there's really no proof one way or the other.

[SiUK 0]

The way to look at it is....Someone is breaking into your house, or is already in(you're asleep). Do you seriously have time to go find the weapon, find the ammo, load it and *BLEEP* it before they get to you? Probably not. So leaving it loaded would be much safer than leaving it unloaded.

We don't have the same gun laws as the US where I'm from but if we did, I would probably apply that very logic and keep mine loaded & locked away near where I slept, probably unlocking it at night just in case if I was feeling extra paranoid lol.

It'll be interesting to see what they do in terms of charging the lad. It seems a bit unbelievable that someone so young would be able to carry, aim and fire a shotgun and it could well be like some others have stated that the kid has merely become a scapegoat to one of the other teenagers actions. If he wasn't, its quite disturbing that not only did he know exactly where to go to get it from, as well as being able to fire it, but also doing it for something some trivial as having his foot stepped on, if it is true instead of charging the kid they should enrol him into some serious anger management classes.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

We don't have the same gun laws as the US where I'm from but if we did, I would probably apply that very logic and keep mine loaded & locked away near where I slept, probably unlocking it at night just in case if I was feeling extra paranoid lol.
It'll be interesting to see what they do in terms of charging the lad. It seems a bit unbelievable that someone so young would be able to carry, aim and fire a shotgun and it could well be like some others have stated that the kid has merely become a scapegoat to one of the other teenagers actions. If he wasn't, its quite disturbing that not only did he know exactly where to go to get it from, as well as being able to fire it, but also doing it for something some trivial as having his foot stepped on, if it is true instead of charging the kid they should enrol him into some serious anger management classes.

True...There are some 4 year olds that look like 8-9 year olds,lol. It's not a *lot* of them but there are some nonetheless.

About the anger management...From a psychological point of view, he is going to be at risk to shoot and/or try to murder others in the future. Because he tried it once, it will shape his future behavior. *Especially* if he gets away with it. He will learn from that that there is no real punishment for that type of behavior.

Although I do understand that he is very young, he needs some type of punishment that will explain to him just how bad what he did really was.

[street 0]

Well after reading the article i saw that it was a air soft shotgun. Looks like the child has problems with everyone stepping on his foot. When i first read the title i thought a 4 year old actually killed his babysitter.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Well after reading the article i saw that it was a air soft shotgun. Looks like the child has problems with everyone stepping on his foot. When i first read the title i thought a 4 year old actually killed his babysitter.

I don't really know a lot about air soft weapons, but aren't they just as hard/harder to load than normal ones? Especially since you have to do a lot more to them to get the power of them up(pumping or whatever)?

And he could *have* killed the babysitter. It just wasn't a fatal wound.