Police in Rock Hill, South Carolina received an unusual call on Saturday. A man reported what appeared to be an assault weapon being fired at pedestrians. As if that’s not terrifying enough, the man told police that a child was the one firing the weapon.
Rock Hill Police responded to a call around 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon after a man reportedly witnessed a group of children playing with an assault rifle. The children allegedly fired the weapon over the heads of passing pedestrians on Glenn Street in Rock Hill.
Police say that when they first arrived on scene the children denied knowing anything about a gun. Finally an 8-year-old boy admitted that a gun was shot and showed officers where it was. Officers retrieved a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle from under a bed. There was one round in the chamber, one in the magazine and two in the ground outside.
When the child’s mother was questioned she said, she said her son was under the care of a 13-yr-old babysitter at the time of the shooting. She also said that the weapon was owned by a convicted felon.
This is seriously one of those “wtf?” gun stories. A child shooting an assault weapon, owned by a convicted felon, at innocent pedestrians walking down a street, while being babysat by another child.
Fortunately for everyone involved, this case had a happy ending. Police confiscated the weapon. Nobody was hurt. Nobody was arrested.
Obviously a felon should not have possession of a rifle in the first place. However, the felon is just as irresponsible as thousands of “responsible” gun owners across the country. How many stories have we heard in the last year of children getting a hold of these weapons and killing themselves, siblings, parents, etc? Too many to count.
Gun nuts ignore those cases. The cases of children getting a hold of a “responsible” gun owner’s weapon and killing or injuring someone. Like the case of the Christian parenting advice columnist whose three year old son shot his baby sister with daddy’s gun.
Instead gun nuts will use stories like this one to justify their “we need more guns” mantra. They need guns to protect themselves from the irresponsible felons who illegally possess firearms. Do you see how that works?