Pro-Gun Mom Shot By Toddler One Day After Bragging About How Much He Loved Target Practice

Florida mom shot by 4-year-old a day after bragging about how much he loved to shoot on Facebook

A pro-gun Florida mom was accidentally shot by her 4-year-old son, just one day after bragging about how much the child loved to shoot on Facebook. The boy found a loaded gun in Jamie Gilt’s car Tuesday and shot her as she was driving.

Gilt survived the gunshot and is in stable condition.

Gilt maintains a Facebook page called “Jamie Gilt For Gun Sense.” Just this Monday she wrote, “Even my 4 year old gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22,” during a debate about guns as a means of self-defense. Her page was just taken down, presumably by a member of her family who actually has a brain. Not before Addicting Info got screen shots, though:

CBS 47 reported that the boy fired the gun into the cushion of mom’s driver’s seat and she was struck in the back. Deputies are trying to figure out how the boy got his hands on the gun.

The 4-year-old is with family members and will obviously not face charges. Mom should, though. She’s lucky the boy turned the gun away from himself. Gun lovers will probably point to this incident and say “well, at least he knows how to handle a gun!” because the circular reason they exhibit in instances like this one is truly baffling. There was a booster seat in the car, but when police arrived the boy was not strapped in.

Florida actually does have safe storage laws, so the mom should be charged with a misdemeanor. We’ll see.

Is this the kind of “responsible gun owner” people are talking about when they defend the dozens of gun accidents that now happen in this country a year involving toddlers? If this boy killed his mother, he would be left to carry that burden for his entire life — and for what? Because his she had to be surrounded by armed weapons to feel like she was truly free? Yay, Second Amendment. God bless America.

These “accidents” need to be prosecuted as what they are: criminal negligence. No toddler should be turned into a “murderer” because his parent was too much of a fool to realize that guns are not a “God-given right” — they are instruments of death that need to be handled responsibly and properly.

Last year, there were over 43 instances of someone being shot and killed by a toddler aged three or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, the toddler found a gun and shot him or herself. Thirteen toddlers inadvertently killed themselves with firearms. 18 more injured themselves, 10 injured other people, and two killed other people. These are no longer isolated incidents. And in every story, you will always find the person saying, “Well that person was an idiot! Responsible gun owners don’t leave guns out like that!” If that’s the case, no one should be bothered by stricter gun laws that prosecute those who allow firearms to fall into the hands of children.