Father accidentally shoots dead son, 7

[rifleshooter474]

A man's handgun went off while he was holding it as he got into his truck in the parking lot of a western Pennsylvania gun store Saturday and the shot killed his 7-year-old son, authorities said.
Joseph V. Loughrey, 44, was getting into the truck when the 9 mm handgun discharged, wounding the boy, Craig Allen Loughrey, in the chest, according to state police.


Read more: Boy, 7, shot dead in his car booster seat in front of gun store as his dad backed out of parking space | Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[gchc1ff]

This guy did not have the proper training to carry a loaded fire arm into a vehicle with a child on board. This guy will have to live with that image burned into his mind and have to go on with his horrible life.

 

[sdprof]

He violated three of the rules. He paid a really big price for his negligence.

 

[maine04619]

Violated Rules #1 #2 and #3. He was fully responsible for the result of his actions IMHO..

 

[gunnerbob]

SMMFH.....

(15 mo')

 

[tattedupboy]

Lock him up and throw away the key.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[Bozz]

Sad and tragic.

 

[JimPage]

Guns don't "go off" by themselves. The man fired the gun! Inadvertently I'm sure, but he did fire the gun.
Any one of several safety rules would have prevented this. He violated them all. The one rule that reminds me of is.......YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!

 

[Sir Diealotz]

Sad and tragic.

Very sad and tragic indeed.

 

[CapGun]

Lock him up and throw away the key.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

What I am going to say I planned on saying outright but since I saw your post I must elaborate a bit.
This is a sad tragedy. The tragic part as everyone here knows it was avoidable by the four basic gun handling rules.
Having said that I now ask you tattedupboy, and anyone else, would you have had the same reaction to the parents that accidentally back their car out of their driveway running over their own kids or neighbor kids. Or the parents that let their teenage girls light some candles during a pajama party and went to bed without making sure the candles were out and end up losing 3 of her children? I can go on because there are many such tragic events happening on a regular basis.
This gun negligence hits all of us hard here just because we know it will be used as an excuse for more gun control.
So if you are particularly reactionary to this as will all the antis out there, just point out this is absolutely no different then the other type of tragedies I mentioned and point that out with determination. Again, these could all have been avoided.
Being imperfect I just hope that we all stay vigilant and pay attention to the "rules". I will also take a little luck and any blessings that I can.

 

[tattedupboy]

What I am going to say I planned on saying outright but since I saw your post I must elaborate a bit.
This is a sad tragedy. The tragic part as everyone here knows it was avoidable by the four basic gun handling rules.
Having said that I now ask you tattedupboy, and anyone else, would you have had the same reaction to the parents that accidentally back their car out of their driveway running over their own kids or neighbor kids. Or the parents that let their teenage girls light some candles during a pajama party and went to bed without making sure the candles were out and end up losing 3 of her children? I can go on because there are many such tragic events happening on a regular basis.
This gun negligence hits all of us hard here just because we know it will be used as an excuse for more gun control.
So if you are particularly reactionary to this as will all the antis out there, just point out this is absolutely no different then the other type of tragedies I mentioned and point that out with determination. Again, these could all have been avoided.
Being imperfect I just hope that we all stay vigilant and pay attention to the "rules". I will also take a little luck and any blessings that I can.

It is a tragedy indeed. Let me ask you, how should this man be dealt with? Whether he acted with malice or with negligence, his son is just as dead regardless.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

 

[maine04619]

would you have had the same reaction to the parents that accidentally back their car out of their driveway running over their own kids or neighbor kids.

As a professional OTR driver far many years It is not a accident. If you back over someone your not paying attention. So yes I hold the driver 100 percent responsible.

Or the parents that let their teenage girls light some candles during a pajama party and went to bed without making sure the candles were out and end up losing 3 of her children?

Yes the parents being responsible for the teens are there to decide what is or may be a risk. Having a open flame in your home is inviting a fire. My daughter was not even allowed to HAVE candles much less lite one in the home.

Being imperfect I just hope that we all stay vigilant and pay attention to the "rules". I will also take a little luck and any blessings that I can.

Thus the key imperfect knowing this we must obey common sense and take responsibility for our actions.

 

[BluesStringer]

It is a tragedy indeed. Let me ask you, how should this man be dealt with? Whether he acted with malice or with negligence, his son is just as dead regardless.

I relate to CapGun's take on this, so I'm going to take a stab at answering this question.

The answer is: He should be dealt with however the law in his jurisdiction deals with any other accidental death. I think this is what Capgun was getting at, that just because it was a gun-related accidental death, in the eyes of the law, the gun should have no more bearing on the legal consequences for the perpetrator than the consequences suffered by someone who caused a death with their car, or any number of other seemingly innocuous things that have the potential to be dangerous.

If the dad's jurisdiction routinely prosecutes most or all accidents as criminal activity, they would be quite unique in this country. If that jurisdiction is like the overwhelming majority of jurisdictions in this country, where a death deemed to be the result of an accident is rarely, if ever, prosecuted, then this dad should be allowed to go home and grieve with what's left of his family. They'll be lucky to get through this as a family in any case. I seriously doubt that prison could make this guy feel any worse than he already does, and prison certainly won't help him or his family get back to a sense of normalcy, if that's even within the realm of possibility to begin with.

There may be justification for legal punishment under a negligent homicide theory of the case. All of us who handle guns on a daily basis and who pay close attention to being safe at all times, would certainly view this man's carelessness as negligence. But our standard of negligence may well differ from the law's standard. Unless it is well-defined within the law, and enforced consistently enough that society can see that this man is being dealt as equal justice as any other negligence case, then I don't see the point of prosecuting him. I sure as heck don't want to go shooting with the guy, but I fail to see how society and/or justice is served by "locking him up and throwing away the key."

Blues