A 13-year-old girl was accidentally shot by her cousin as their family members cleaned out a late relative’s Bel Air home Friday afternoon, police said.
According to the Harford County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to a home on Colonial Court just after 4 p.m. Police said the home’s owner had recently died and family members were present cleaning out the home. Two cousins, a 14-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl, discovered the handgun; the boy accidentally fired the gun, hitting the girl in the leg.
The girl was transported to Johns Hopkins Children’s Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Additional detail on the incident was not immediately available.
Yet another accident with kids and guns. Where the heck are the parents?? Doesn’t anybody supervise their children? And why are we letting them handle all these weapons in such a careless manner?? People want more guns, and we as a society can’t even responsibly handle the ones we have!! You can’t make this stuff up.
Firearm safety is an important life lesson.
If you want to paint a broad brush over 1 incident, perhaps a suggestion of firearm safety approved for grade school education should be made available? That is a way for “society” to educate those children who have not been raised with firearm safety a form to receive training?
I recommend state mandated gun training and safety courses beginning in pre- K, using NRA guidelines, at all government schools.
Go back to Jersey fool and take the rest of the BRAC transplants with ya and don’t let the door hit cha where the good Lord split ya.
We’d love to go back. You need to talk to Dutch, Barb and the rest of your MD politicians who brought us down here. Blame them, not us. We’d all rather be in Jersey!
Then, what’s stopping you? Working tourism in the big dirty doesn’t pay the bills?
Didn’t I just read you all are getting ‘Brac’d’ again?
We’re all going to wait for the Army to pay to buy our houses, and pay all our moving costs. As much as we don’t want to be here, lots of employees made lots of $ on the move from MJ to MD. We want the same deal again – and if they BRAC us, we’ll get it.
You won’t get rid of us that easy! ; )
You don’t have to like guns to train your kids, people! Every once in a blue moon, kids do get access to firearms when they shouldn’t.
Please, please, teach your kids about fundamental gun safety before they learn the hard way. You just never know. It’s no different than any other safety training.
“BRAC Family.” Going to assume you are from New Jersey or New York where residents are culturally conditioned that firearms are evil. Enough said.
Fortunately with the amount of people who have lawful access to firearms, and our criminal element, who unlawfully have firearms, I’d say the negligent discharge of a firearm is really, really, really low except for maybe, Baltimore City which has a much larger criminal element than say, Harford County.
Negligence is in human nature. Its in everyone’s best interest to be informed of many things and have proper awareness and training for many things.
Just look at all the negligent motor vehicle crashes that occurs while driving an automobile in this county. We can’t blame the traffic intersections for absent minded people who have no interest in helping themselves.
“Just look at all the negligent motor vehicle crashes that occurs while driving an automobile in this county. We can’t blame the traffic intersections for absent minded people who have no interest in helping themselves.”
I can tell you haven’t been on the nuts against evamar facebook page. That is their entire argument against development in the county. It’s the roads that kill people.
When I was a kid, nobody’s parents of all the kids in our neighbourhood owned guns. I guess it is a NJ thing, but none of our parents hunted, and guns were not part of any aspect of our daily lives. I remember once, one of the guys somehow ended up with a BB gun – still have no idea where he got it. Well that adventure lasted about one day till his mother found out. He got a major arse-whoopin’ for having a gun, and we never saw that thing again. And, his mother made sure the rest of our Mom’s knew, and there was no chance that any of the rest of us would have one.
I still ask the question in the Bel Air accident: where were the parents? If gun safety training is such a big deal (and I agree that it is) why weren’t these kids being supervised? Something isn’t right with this story.
The parents might not have known the deceased owned a gun, or they might have not known the number of firearms that were supposed to be in the house and missed one, or they thought all the firearms were locked in the safe, etc.
Or they expected teenagers to not be complete idiots and keep their booger hooks off the bang switch.
If this was a family members house they were cleaning out then why didn’t they go for the gun first? I’ve cleaned out several homes of family members and the FIRST thing we go to find is the gun, that way we know where it is and it is in our possession or locked away.
Maybe they didn’t know there was a gun in the house. There’s no indication of how close a relative this person was and even if they were close, that doesn’t necessarily mean other family members knew there was a gun in the house.
Bottom line, all children should have some basic understanding of firearm safety even if there are no guns in their own house. You don’t know if they’ll come across a gun at a friend’s house or even outside someplace.
Wait. What
I dont think todays society teaches kids enough about making smart decisions and doing what is right. Not knowing the entire circumstances of the family member that passed away, so not getting into the debate about the guns being properly secured etc. Not knowing the whole circumstances of the family going through the house, you really cant blame the parents as there are probably a lot of variables that are not included in the article Teaching gun safety and awareness is a smart thing to do. Partularly since we cant be with our kids 100% of the time. If these kids had been taught proper awareness or gun safety, they would have known not to touch it and let an adult know what was found. I grew up during a time before the gun locks were around. My father who was a law enforcement officer taught all the kids about gun awareness and gun safety. He also took steps to make sure that all his guns were secured properly with gun in one location and bullets in another. My sisters and brother knew where he stored both, but we were taught not to touch it. Teaching kids about gun safety is not advocating your beliefs no matter what side of that gun debate you fall on. It’s just the smart thing to do. I taught my kids about gun safety, and I am sure when their kids get old enough they will teach them about gun safety as well.
Our guidance to our kids is: if you see a gun, anywhere/anytime, get away from it as quickly as possible and DO NOT touch it. Call us, text us, anytime of the day or night, and we will drop anything to get you out of there. We also advise them, to contact the police immediately if they feel any threat or mishandling. That includes at school, in their friends homes, in some public place, wherever. They are aware that many, many people carry concealed and there is a real threat of gun violence anywhere at any time.
It is too bad that we must concern ourselves with so many weapons all around us, but our children are aware of the threat.
Teaching children to “run away” and “call for help immediately” when they innocently discover an inanimate tool, such as a firearm, is why “society” is the way it is now. All situations are different, and in this specific incident of an innocent discovery of a firearm at a family members house, I don’t think it warrants “running away” or “calling the Police” when the situation can easily be diffused, even more so when a 14 year old boy should easily have been instructed proper firearms etiquette.
When I was 14 I’d have shot my sister if given the proper venue and I thought I could get away with it. She was and still is the bitch from hell.
If this was such an innocent discovery, why was the girl shot? Our message is still the same to our kids: if you see guns, get away as fast as possible so you don’t end up shot like this girl.
Heck she could run as fast as she wants just need to lead her a little more.
I bet you voted for Obama too
BRAC Family, not sure what your complex?
Do you have further information that there was pre meditation?
Anyone with any intelligence could discern that this article reports negligence after accidental/innocent/unintentional firearm discovery.
The person was shit because a firearm was handled negligently.
Guess what BRAC, I was born and raised in HarCo and we used to shoot pellet guns in school along with bows and arrows and we use to play with lawn darts with the real metal tips. We played with M-80’s and blew shit up. Hunting was just something we did. And then all you left-leaning Liberals moved here and think we should stop what we have been doing for 2 hundred years because of a mishap? I think not.
“Hunting was just something we did. And then all you left-leaning Liberals moved here and think we should stop what we have been doing for 2 hundred years because of a mishap? I think not.”
I’m not asking anyone to stop doing anything. My only question is where the heck are the parents in this case? A family is cleaning out a house, and they don’t know that their kid found a gun? Huh? Like they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Additionally, I don’t hunt only because it is way to slow. I couldn’t stand still waiting for a deer for 5 minutes let alone 5 hours or all day and night. It’s the same reason I don’t fish or play golf. Too slow. Go hunt all you want, if you enjoy doing so. I’d rather go to Wegmans and buy my meat there.
I’d expect teenagers to be able to clean a house independently and without parental supervision.
Try upland bird hunting if you want more action.
BRAC Family, perhaps not everyone was in the same room when cleaning/moving belongings out a home.
Not sure why you keep asking questions none of us can answer.
BRac, You keep harping on the same thing: Do you honestly surprise your 13 and 14 year old 24/7? Geez! Cause if you don’t, what happens when they are walking on the sidewalk and trip and fall on a piece of glass? You should have been there to “protect” them..
Surprise should be surpervise
Surpervise should be Supervise
Thanks Hed, I hab a ritin’ and speeken problum.
No guns in our house; don’t need to worry about them “accidentally” finding one.
Parents should be arrested for neglect and child endangerment. Good thing a cop wasn’t around or she would be shot, of course if she was black she wouldn’t need a gun or a hoodie for the deputy to feel threatened.
While it’s certainly a bad accident, I’m glad the girl’s injury is not as serious as it could be.
Those who called for safety education are correct.
I’ve presented the NRA Eddie Eagle Gun Safe program to a few hundred children over the years. It’s been given to over 20,000,000 children and teaches them what to do if they find a gun.
The program also incorporates other safety initiatives, like crossing the street and staying away from chemicals.
While it’s designed for younger kids, the concept behind Eddie Eagle is very sound. Children are taught that if they happen to find a gun, including in the exact scenario of this incident, they are to do four simple things: STOP, DON’T TOUCH, LEAVE THE AREA, TELL AN ADULT.
They are not to handle, touch or attempt to clear the gun.
The program also does not teach anything pro or anti-gun. One young man in a group once raised his hands and said “My daddy hates guns, we don’t have any guns in our house.” I replied that I wasn’t there to tell them that they should or should not have guns, the point is to teach them what to do if they ever found one, whether at home, or a friend’s house or just lying on the ground.
Sadly, the 14 year old needed to learn the lesson Eddie Eagle teaches.
It’s also important to demystify guns, especially with young men. The way to do that is to allow them to learn the proper way to use and treat them. Get kids to a shooting range and teach them. If you’re not comfortable, find someone who is.
Like a power saw, a gun is an inanimate object that can be either very helpful or very dangerous.
Check out Eddie Eagle at http://eddieeagle.nra.org/
BRAC Family, don’t forget to keep a cell phone glued to your face as you drive around good ol’harford county.
I call BS on this
the edgewood/aberdeen kids get to have guns why cant the bel air kids have them as well ?
maybe bane will do a walk with some bel air residents and spread the word that guns are unsafe for all people and have blowmalley push thru new gun laws to protect us from ourselves
what a crock of sh!t
smh
BRAC Family: “We’re all going to wait for the Army to pay to buy our houses, and pay all our moving costs. As much as we don’t want to be here, lots of employees made lots of $ on the move from MJ to MD. We want the same deal again – and if they BRAC us, we’ll get it.”
*****
In my opinion, it will be worth every penny to get rid of you, the sooner the better!
Personally, waiting around for some entity to buy my home and pay relocation expenses sounds like big fail to me.
Wait until the same people tell you last minute they don’t need you anymore. Hopefully you won’t be too far from your home state, the big dirty, to go back.
If there’s a BRAC I can guarantee you the Army will pay all the costs. That’s what we’re all waiting for.
They didn’t pay for the houses in Jersey, they sure aren’t going to start now.
The only thing tolerable is you assholes have to go back every weekend to your unsold houses in Monmouth. Army ain’t buying squat they have too many better qualified people as it is. So it’ll be back to your over priced crappy houses with no job in Jersey.
Can’t say I hate to see ya go,.but guaranteed you are going.
Enjoy.
“They didn’t pay for the houses in Jersey, they sure aren’t going to start now.”
Oh no? Do some research on:
DNRP – Dept. of Defense National Relocation Program which has as Its primary benefit, the Guaranteed Home Sale service.
HAP – The Homeowners Assistance Program (HAP) is based upon the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act of 1966, and was expanded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to provide financial assistance to service members and certain DoD civilian homeowners who suffer financial loss on the sale of their primary residences. HAP consists of BRAC Impacted Personnel or Wounded, Injured, or Ill and Surviving Spouse applicants.
That flabby tit dried up last BRAC dummy. the newly unemployed military have taken your place numb nut. You have been left on the road side as yesterdays uncollected smelly garbage.
Hope you like returning to Monmouth ghost town. I hear the greyhound bus station has an opening sucking farts out of bus seats…. Better apply fast before the job is filled.
I think its funny that BRAC Family hates Harford County when the rumor I’ve heard from APG workers is that the NJ groups would be moved to Northern Alabama if they left…
We don’t hate Harford County; in fact we like it here. The schools are excellent. However, we like NJ a lot more.
Please – contact Dutch and Barb on our behalf to expedite the process so we can get our money! We’ll be glad to go once they buy our homes and pay all our moving costs. Till then, you’re stuck with us!
Alabammy bound, eh…
Kardashians meet Bubba.
I love it!!!
😀
Well the good thing is…. just like Jersey when they get to Alabama it’s still ok to be married to yer sister.
This has gotten completely away from the topic of this story. Move it to one of our many BRAC-related stories.