CDFingers wrote: Fri Oct 20, 2023 2:37 pm Truth remains stranger than fiction.

The 3-year-old son of a North Carolina pastor accidentally shot his 2-year-old brother in the head with their father’s gun in a church parking lot — and is miraculously expected to make a full recovery.

The incident occurred around 8:30 p.m. Sunday outside River Valley Baptist Church in Morganton — a city about 75 miles northwest of Charlotte.

The pastor of the church, Rev. Adam Vines, told WBTV that his older son had gotten hold of a gun in the side door of the family’s parked van and accidentally fired the weapon, injuring his younger brother, Daniel Vines.

The Vines family were attending an evening church service at the time of the shooting.

https://nypost.com/2023/10/18/pastors-3 ... -dads-gun/

Sure, what could go wrong, leaving your toddlers in the car unsupervised with a gun in the door pocket while you go to church? Only upside is it's not Texas--where there'd be a gun in each door pocket.

If you're not carrying it, handling it, or can see directly where it's stashed, your gun must be secured.

CDFingers

A Newport News Circuit Court judge ruled Friday that the first grade teacher shot by a 6-year-old student at Richneck Elementary School in January can proceed with her $40 million lawsuit against the school division. In the ruling, Judge Matthew W. Hoffman said Abigail Zwerner, 25, is not limited to filing a Workers’ Compensation claim, as attorneys for the Newport News School Board and other defendants asserted. “The Court finds the injury suffered by Plaintiff did not arise out of her employment,” Hoffman wrote in the eight-page decision. The defendants’ bid to toss the case, he wrote, “is denied.” Under longstanding Virginia law, claims stemming from a workplace injury are resolved exclusively by the Workers’ Compensation Act, with such workers barred from pursuing claims through personal injury lawsuits. If she went through Workman’s Comp, Zwerner could collect two-thirds of her teacher’s pay — tax free — for nine years and eight months, plus lifetime medical benefits.

But Zwerner’s attorneys contend getting shot by a student in a first-grade classroom isn’t reasonably seen as a workplace hazard. Not only would no teacher have anticipated getting shot by a student, they said, but the shooting itself was “personal,” directed at Zwerner in particular. They want damages to be determined by a Circuit Court jury or a negotiated settlement. Zwerner’s lawyers applauded Hoffman’s ruling. This victory is an important stepping stone on our path towards justice for Abby,” attorneys Diane Toscano, Jeffrey Breit and Kevin Biniazan wrote in a statement. “We are eager to continue our pursuit of accountability and a just, fair recovery. No teacher expects to stare down the barrel of a gun held by a 6-year-old student.” The Newport News School Board and other defendants are expected to appeal to the Virginia Court of Appeals, and the case could ultimately end up before the state Supreme Court. Such an appeal could significantly delay the scheduling of a trial. In fact, the docket shows the seven-day jury trial isn’t scheduled until January 2025.

On April 26, the School Board filed a “plea in bar” contending the Circuit Court has no “subject matter jurisdiction” over the case, and that Zwerner is instead limited to Worker’s Compensation alone. The Workers’ Compensation Act, instituted in Virginia in 1918, broadly protects workers who are injured on the job through accidents and disease. A key provision of the law is that it protects workers in fault and no-fault accidents. In other words, workers are covered even if their own negligence caused their injury. But the tradeoff is that workers are sharply limited in suing their employers. They cannot collect both Worker’s Comp and damages from a lawsuit, and in fact are barred from proceeding with a lawsuit in most circumstances. It’s a “legislative quid pro quo” that amounts to “a societal exchange” between workers and their companies, Hoffman wrote, citing prior court decisions.

To get Worker’s Comp, Hoffman wrote, an injury must be “accidental,: must take place “during the course of employment” and must “arise from” that employment. Those are “the three essential elements for an injury to fall within the exclusive provisions of workers’ compensation coverage,” he said. In this case, Hoffman wrote, both sides agree on two of the necessary elements. Being the victim of an assault — or even a gunshot wound — is considered an “accident” under the law because it was caused by a “sudden … precipitating event.” And because the shooting took place in Zwerner’s class as she taught, it was “during the course of her employment.” But the third element — that the shooting “arose” from Zwerner’s job as a first-grade schoolteacher — wasn’t established, Hoffman ruled. That eliminates Worker’s Comp as the remedy, he said, thereby allowing the lawsuit to go forward. “This Court does not find that the injury of a gunshot wound is one that is a ‘natural incident of the work’ or its origin ‘connected with the employment’ of a first-grade teacher and would not be contemplated by a reasonable person,” Hoffman wrote.

The mother of the first-grader who shot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in January was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in federal prison on gun and marijuana charges. A federal judge sentenced Deja Nicole Taylor, 26, for being an unlawful user of marijuana in possession of a firearm, as well as for lying on a federal background check form when she bought the gun seven months before the Jan. 6 shooting. That’s in addition to any prison time Taylor gets on a state felony child neglect charge for which she will be sentenced in December.

Court documents say Taylor’s son, then 6, climbed atop his mother’s dresser and took the gun out of her purse — then put it in his backpack and took it to school. About 2 p.m., he removed the 9mm gun from his hoodie pocket and fired a single round at his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, as she began a reading lesson. The bullet went through her left hand, with most of it ending up in her upper chest. “This case cries out for imprisonment,” U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis said at the tail end of a 3 ½-hour sentencing hearing in Newport News Federal Court. “There were too many opportunities, too many off-ramps. This was not a one-off.”

There was so much “leading up to this moment,” he added. That includes the time Taylor was pulled over in Williamsburg in 2021 with her son and two others in the car, with a bag full of marijuana and other drugs next to the boy, who was then 4. It also includes an incident on Dec. 27, 2022 — only 10 days before the Richneck shooting — that only came to light in documents filed for Wednesday’s sentencing. In that case, prosecutors said, Taylor used the gun to shoot at her boyfriend — the boy’s father — when she discovered that he and another woman had been driving around in a UHaul van that Taylor had rented. Taylor didn’t hit either of them. But the boyfriend, Malik Ellison, wrote in a text message to Taylor that she could have killed him. “U almost shot me deja,” Ellison wrote. “The bullet is above my head.” “U kept moving the van,” Taylor replied. “I was aiming at the hoe.” The van was later found abandoned in Newport News.

When detectives questioned Taylor shortly after the shooting, court documents say, she downplayed the extent of her marijuana usage, saying she quit for extended periods. She also told officers that her gun had a “bright red trigger lock,” with a key kept under her mattress. But in court documents related to a guilty plea in June, Taylor acknowledged she was a heavy marijuana user and that there was no trigger lock. The boy, now 7, is in the custody of his great-grandfather, Calvin Taylor, a former military police officer and retired captain at the Virginia Department of Corrections. He testified at Wednesday’s hearing that the boy is thriving at a different school. “He’s doing wonderful,” Calvin Taylor testified. “He’s happy to be in school. He’s learning things, and he surprises himself. He was the ‘Star Student of the Week’ recently. It’s amazing what a different environment can do.” That’s a long way from the boy’s time at Richneck, he said, when the great-grandfather and other relatives had to attend school with the boy to “encourage him to behave.” Moreover, recently released court documents say the boy twice took his mother’s car keys when he was 5. In one case, the report said, the boy drove out of a parking space and hit two parked cars. Another time, he refused to leave the car, with police having to break a window to get him out. That caused Child Protective Services to get involved with the family.

highdesert wrote: Thu Nov 16, 2023 8:02 am

The mother of the first-grader who shot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in January was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in federal prison on gun and marijuana charges. A federal judge sentenced Deja Nicole Taylor, 26, for being an unlawful user of marijuana in possession of a firearm, as well as for lying on a federal background check form when she bought the gun seven months before the Jan. 6 shooting. That’s in addition to any prison time Taylor gets on a state felony child neglect charge for which she will be sentenced in December.

Court documents say Taylor’s son, then 6, climbed atop his mother’s dresser and took the gun out of her purse — then put it in his backpack and took it to school. About 2 p.m., he removed the 9mm gun from his hoodie pocket and fired a single round at his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, as she began a reading lesson. The bullet went through her left hand, with most of it ending up in her upper chest. “This case cries out for imprisonment,” U.S. District Judge Mark S. Davis said at the tail end of a 3 ½-hour sentencing hearing in Newport News Federal Court. “There were too many opportunities, too many off-ramps. This was not a one-off.”

There was so much “leading up to this moment,” he added. That includes the time Taylor was pulled over in Williamsburg in 2021 with her son and two others in the car, with a bag full of marijuana and other drugs next to the boy, who was then 4. It also includes an incident on Dec. 27, 2022 — only 10 days before the Richneck shooting — that only came to light in documents filed for Wednesday’s sentencing. In that case, prosecutors said, Taylor used the gun to shoot at her boyfriend — the boy’s father — when she discovered that he and another woman had been driving around in a UHaul van that Taylor had rented. Taylor didn’t hit either of them. But the boyfriend, Malik Ellison, wrote in a text message to Taylor that she could have killed him. “U almost shot me deja,” Ellison wrote. “The bullet is above my head.” “U kept moving the van,” Taylor replied. “I was aiming at the hoe.” The van was later found abandoned in Newport News.

When detectives questioned Taylor shortly after the shooting, court documents say, she downplayed the extent of her marijuana usage, saying she quit for extended periods. She also told officers that her gun had a “bright red trigger lock,” with a key kept under her mattress. But in court documents related to a guilty plea in June, Taylor acknowledged she was a heavy marijuana user and that there was no trigger lock. The boy, now 7, is in the custody of his great-grandfather, Calvin Taylor, a former military police officer and retired captain at the Virginia Department of Corrections. He testified at Wednesday’s hearing that the boy is thriving at a different school. “He’s doing wonderful,” Calvin Taylor testified. “He’s happy to be in school. He’s learning things, and he surprises himself. He was the ‘Star Student of the Week’ recently. It’s amazing what a different environment can do.” That’s a long way from the boy’s time at Richneck, he said, when the great-grandfather and other relatives had to attend school with the boy to “encourage him to behave.” Moreover, recently released court documents say the boy twice took his mother’s car keys when he was 5. In one case, the report said, the boy drove out of a parking space and hit two parked cars. Another time, he refused to leave the car, with police having to break a window to get him out. That caused Child Protective Services to get involved with the family.

https://www.pilotonline.com/2023/11/15/ ... a-charges/

WAVERLY, Ohio (WCMH) – A mother was charged with endangering children after her toddler fired a gun in Walmart on Thursday.

Authorities responded to a 911 call reporting a gunshot inside the Walmart in Waverly around 11:12 a.m. When they got there, a woman reported to police that her 2-year-old son had gotten ahold of her Taurus 9mm firearm and accidentally discharged it, according to the Waverly Police Department.

” —some people treat loaded handguns like they are a piece of clothing, a hair brush, a toothbrush...just throw it in the backpack.

sikacz wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 11:09 am Boils down to safety education.

Bisbee wrote: Fri Nov 17, 2023 3:50 pm

” —some people treat loaded handguns like they are a piece of clothing, a hair brush, a toothbrush...just throw it in the backpack.

Them folks are like Arizonans who enjoy Constitutional Carry laws and often treat firearms like a bic-lighter or something (because they are being sold as “lifestyle accessories”). No CC license nor education required. No brains neither.

CDFingers wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:48 pm We're the choir. We all have to get the ideas of gun safety out there in front of "regular Americans" who may own or will buy guns in the future.

CDFingers

CDFingers wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:48 pm We're the choir. We all have to get the ideas of gun safety out there in front of "regular Americans" who may own or will buy guns in the future.

CDFingers

F4FEver wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2023 8:54 am

CDFingers wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 1:48 pm We're the choir. We all have to get the ideas of gun safety out there in front of "regular Americans" who may own or will buy guns in the future.

CDFingers

Unless it's somehow mandated, I doubt that will ever happen. I'd be willing to bet the % of people that actually know the rules of safe firearm use is small. We've all been to ranges and have seen some of the yahoos that come there to shoot.
Do ya suppose the mother of that 6yo knew the rules? Probably not. How about the millions who bought a gun 'just in case', and then put it in their dresser drawer..probably not.

Before I became a 'gun guy' about 7 years ago..when I went up and went shooting with my grown son for the first time...he made me learn and recite the 'rules'. Most don't do that.

"But 'murica', I know this stuff, leave me alone"....barechester type crap all too often.

The Virginia mother of the 6-year-old boy accused of shooting his first grade teacher in class earlier this year was sentenced on Friday to two years in prison for child neglect. Deja Taylor pleaded guilty in August to state felony child neglect in connection with the January shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News. A misdemeanor charge of endangering a child by reckless storage of a firearm was dropped. This is Taylor's second prison sentence in connection with the shooting. In November, she was sentenced to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal charges of using marijuana while in possession of a firearm and making a false statement about her drug use during the purchase of the firearm, both felonies. Police say the 6-year-old student brought a gun into his classroom and intentionally shot and wounded his teacher, Abby Zwerner, on Jan. 6. Zwerner sustained a gunshot wound through her hand and into her chest.

Federal prosecutors said the firearm used in the shooting was purchased by Taylor in July 2022. ATF agents never found a lockbox, a trigger lock or a key for the gun, prosecutors said. Deja Taylor faced up to five years behind bars on the child neglect charge. Prosecutors had recommended a six-month sentence, which fell within state guidelines. The judge ultimately sentenced Taylor to five years with three years suspended. She will also serve two years of probation when she is released, which must include substance abuse treatment, parenting classes and mental health treatment, prosecutors said. The state sentence will be served consecutive to the federal 21-month sentence she is currently serving, the Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney's Office said. Taylor's attorney, James Ellenson, told ABC News the sentence was "excessive" and "harsh." Ellenson said he believed the judge felt Taylor had shown no remorse and didn't take into account mitigating factors the defense had argued in court. "I was arguing domestic abuse, substance abuse and mental health. Those were sort of the key issues that I thought were mitigating factors," Ellenson said. "And also there were instances of maybe the system failing her." Ellenson had previously told reporters he believed no jail time would be appropriate for the child neglect charge.

Zwerner testified during the federal sentencing hearing on the lasting impact of the shooting. "Not only do I bear physical scars from the shooting that will remain with me forever, I contend daily with deep, psychological scars that plague me during most waking moments and invade my dreams," she said. She said she has undergone five surgeries and regular intensive physical therapy to restore motion in her hand. "This permanent damage should never have been allowed to happen to me and would not have happened if not for the defendant's actions or lack thereof," she said. Zwerner filed a $40 million lawsuit against her school district, accusing them of negligence. The school board's lawyers sought to dismiss her claim, arguing her injuries are covered under the state's worker's compensation law. A judge ruled last month that the lawsuit can proceed.

The former assistant principal of a Virginia elementary school where a 6-year-old boy shot and wounded his first-grade teacher last year has been indicted on eight felony counts of child neglect. A special grand jury found that Ebony Parker showed a "reckless disregard for the human life" of the other students at Richneck Elementary School on Jan. 6, 2023, in Newport News, Virginia, unsealed court documents show. Each of the charges is punishable by up to five years in prison. According to authorities, Parker, of Newport News, was working the day the 6-year-old fired a single shot at his teacher, Abigail Zwerner, during a reading class.

Zwerner has filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging that Parker, 39, ignored several warnings that the boy had a gun in school that day. Zwerner was shot in the chest and hand in the shooting but has recovered. The boy told authorities he got his mother's 9mm handgun by climbing onto a drawer to reach the top of a dresser, where the firearm was in his mom's purse. He concealed the weapon in his backpack and then his pocket before shooting his teacher.

The indictments allege that Parker "did commit a willful act or omission in the care of such students, in a manner so gross, wanton and culpable as to show a reckless disregard for human life." The special grand jury issued the indictments on March 11, and they were unsealed by court order Tuesday. A warrant was issued for Parker's arrest on Tuesday morning, but she's not yet in custody. Parker, who resigned from her role after the shooting, is the first school official and second person charged in this case.

According to Zwerner's lawsuit, the boy's parents did not agree to put him in special education classes where he would be with other students with behavioral issues. "There were failures in accountability at multiple levels that led to Abby being shot and almost killed. Today's announcement addresses but one of those failures," Zwerner's lawyer said after Taylor was indicted. "It has been three months of investigation and still so many unanswered questions remain. Our lawsuit makes clear that we believe the school division violated state law, and we are pursuing this in civil court. We will not allow school leaders to escape accountability for their role in this tragedy." The Newport News School Board, former Superintendent George Parker III, former Richneck principal Briana Foster Newton and Parker are named as defendants. The superintendent was fired by the school board.