Whether you have 1 gun or a 100 guns, you can never have a safety lapse when children are around.
Jacksonville father will do jail, probation for daughter's gun accident
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These tragic incidents make programs like the NRA's Eddie Eagle all the more important. We simply can't trust adults to be perfect.
Firearms: “Eddie Eagle” focuses on child safety
Jacksonville father will do jail, probation for daughter's gun accident
A Jacksonville man will serve 90 days in jail, five years of probation and be barred from owning firearms after he accepted responsibility for his 6-year-old daughter’s accidental shooting two months ago.
Donnell Bernard Burney, 32, pleaded guilty to culpable negligence Thursday before Circuit Judge Adrian G. Soud.
Burney was cleaning a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol about 2 p.m. Jan. 16. He left the gun unattended when his daughter, Donesha Burney, was shot in the chest in an apparent accident.
Prosecutor Mark Caliel said Donesha is expected to make a full recovery.
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[FROM THE PROSECUTOR'S CLOSING ARGUMENT:]
"There are no winners in this case, only losers," Assistant District Attorney J.B. Askins told jurors in his closing arguement.
Tyler Lewis cannot be brought back, but jurors can show that gun safety laws have a place, Askins said.
Robert Lewis broke his promise made when purchasing a handgun when he failed to secure the weapon. His broken promise led to his son's death, Askins said.
[FROM THE DEFENSE CLOSING ARGUMENT]
"No matter what the jury does Rob Lewis has a life sentence for losing his only child, his firstborn son," defense attorney Ernie Wright told jurors in his closing argument.
Wright said Lewis left for work with his son alive and in the care of his wife.
Wright said Tyler got the gun in the hour between his father leaving for work and his mother waking up. Later, after asking his mother where his father was, Tyler left her presence for a few seconds, returned to the gun, and accidently shot himself.
Wright said the child was in the care of his mother and was not unsupervised, one of the elements of the failure to secure a firearm law.
"Call this case the way it is," Wright told jurors. "It was a tragic accident."
[FROM THE PROSECUTOR'S REPLY TO THE DEFENSE'S CLOSING ARGUMENT]
"Is the defendant sorry? I'm sure he is," Senior Assistant District Attorney Mike Maultsby told jurors in his closing argument. "But sorry won't get Tyler behind the wheel of his first motor vehicle, sorry won't put Tyler in college, sorry won't send Tyler on his first date. Tyler will never get to do any of these things."
Maultsby said he didn't believe the handgun was on top of the entertainment center as the defendant claims. He said the child couldn't have climbed up the furniture to get the gun.
"It makes no sense," Maultsby said. "Tyler did not climb that entertainment center, ladies and gentleman, the gun was left where Tyler could reach it."
Robert Lewis loaded a Glock 22 .40-caliber pistol, chambered a round and left the gun so all his 3-year-old son had to do was pull the trigger, which had been altered to make it easier to fire, Maultsby said.
This case began when Robert Lewis broke a promise to keep his handgun secure; it shouldn't end with the jury breaking its promise to uphold the law, Maultsby said.
These tragic incidents make programs like the NRA's Eddie Eagle all the more important. We simply can't trust adults to be perfect.
Firearms: “Eddie Eagle” focuses on child safety