Friday, May 31, 2013

Pennsylvania 82-Year-old Woman Shoots herself in the Chest - The Gun Just Went Off

Local news reports

An elderly woman was taken to UPMC Hamot tonight after police said she accidentally shot herself in the chest with a handgun at her Erie residence.

Police identified the injured woman as Delores Smith. Police said she is in her early 80s and that she lives alone. A Hamot nursing supervisor had no information on Smith's condition tonight.

Smith told police she was looking at the gun, which belonged to her, when it accidentally fired, striking her in the chest, police said.

Smith told police the incident happened at about 3 p.m. Police said Smith's daughter found her wounded mother when she came to check on her.

Her relatives and family members and all the local gun nuts thought she was better off with a gun.  How else would she protect herself from masked home-invading rapists?

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.


7 comments:

  1. The site required an idiotic survey to read the article, so I'll just take it on faith that your commentary after the quotation isn't actually from the attributed sources.

    Since the number of gun accidents is a fraction of one percent of the total number of guns and gun owners in this country, I can say that we gun owners are better off in general with our guns than without.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How else would she protect herself from masked home-invading rapists?

    I don't know--how else? Should she have learned karate, with such proficiency that she could handily dispatch a much larger, much younger, much stronger male attacker (or perhaps more than one)? Should she have become ultra-rich, and hired 24-hour security (armed, of course)? Should she have simply planned to submit to any rapist, and hope rape was "all" he wants?

    You tell me, Mikeb--I'd really like to know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're playing dumb again, Kurt. I'm starting to wonder if you're playing.

      There were no rapists, but there was a serious negligent discharge with the gun. All the pro-gun fear mongering was this poor lady's undoing.

      Delete
    2. And Mikeb, you're playing ignorant, even though you know better. You know that the number of gun accidents is a small fraction of the total number of gun owners, and yet you go on as though every gun owner is in immediate danger of suffering an unintended but self-inflicted injury.

      Delete
    3. I see (without surprise), Mikeb, that you have chosen Option #3.

      The abject cowardice defense.

      Delete
    4. Greg, gun misuse may include negligent discharges, but it's not limited to them.

      Delete
    5. You also know that the total number of gun injuries and deaths amount to less than one tenth of one percent of gun owners in this country.

      Delete