An eight-year-old boy has died in Utah after shooting himself with a gun his mom left in a car when she went grocery shopping. The incident happened in the parking lot of a gas station in Lehi, around 30 miles from Salt Lake City, on September 2. Jeanteil Livingston with the Lehi City Police Department told reporters that the gun was located under a seat inside the vehicle, but it was unclear if it was in safety mode.
A witness, who was pumping gas at the time, described hearing a shot and a woman scream and run toward the car. Paramedics rushed the young boy to the hospital, and he was later airlifted to another facility for intensive care but died the following morning. Police have confirmed that the unnamed boy’s mother will not face criminal charges as Utah law does not apply specified firearms storage or safety requirements.
The tragedy occurred just weeks after a five-year-old Utah child found a gun in his parent’s bedroom and accidentally shot himself. Lt. Mike Wall with the Santaquin Police Department said the boy found the 9 mm handgun and fired a single shot at his own head. Lt. Wall did not say where or how the weapon was stored but confirmed the parents would not be held criminally liable.
Other states, however, take a different approach. In Michigan, for instance, 27-year-old Jacob Zachary Gean and 25-year-old Jessie Gean were charged with several offenses last month after their nine-year-old shot himself in the hand with a gun he found at home. The child’s parents face the prospect of up to ten years in prison for failing to secure the firearm, even though the child suffered only minor injuries and is expected to recover fully.
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, have laws demanding that guns be safely stored. In some states, gun owners can be punished even if slack storage does not result in a shooting.