A 7-year-old California boy was injured in the chest Saturday while target shooting at a homemade range, Sacramento TV station KCRA reported.
Deputies told KCRA that the boy was shooting at targets with his father on family property while other family members stood behind them and watched. The boy was firing a single-shot .22-caliber bolt action youth rifle with his father’s help, according to a release from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department.
At one point, the boy grabbed his chest in pain, deputies told KCRA. The father then noticed that his son’s T-shirt had a small hole in it and his son was bleeding from his chest.
A preliminary investigation determined that pieces of a bullet ricocheted and hit the boy, although deputies told KCRA that the guns were never pointed at any of the people on the shooting range.
The child was airlifted to UC Davis Medical Center and was expected to survive, according to the news station. County detectives were looking into the case.
The accident follows the death of a shooting instructor last week at an Arizona gun range. A 9-year-old girl accidentally shot the instructor, Charles Vacca, in the head while firing an Uzi.
Guns are dangerous! And homemade ranges are likely to be dangerous, too, because they won’t be carefully designed to avoid or at least minimize dangers like ricochets, bullets missing the backstop and hitting people maybe a mile away and other hazards.
By the way, the (stock) photo used is not a bolt-action rifle. It’s also not a .22. It’s a lever-action, probably a Marlin .308 of .35 cal. Very different from what the kid was firing.
Another one of those “fun times at the gun range” the NRA brags about. And to the parents: This time you were lucky. Remember that stupid is as stupid does.
First time commenter, because I feel the need to speak up in defense of the family involved. I see this as an unfortunate accident during a situation where the parents did everything right. Seven is an appropriate age to introduce a child to target shooting under supervision, and a single shot .22 is the correct rifle to teach with. This is a scenario where you have the opportunity to teach someone how to correctly and safely handle a rifle, where the dangers are, and what your limitations of control are.
I also don’t see a problem with them shooting on a home range. If someone has the available property to set up a range with a safe backstop then it’s their right to do so.
That the boy was hit by a ricochet is an unfortunate accident. In his favor though, a .22 would have lost so much velocity that I’d be surprised if it did more than puncture the skin.
Seriously, you spent time writing this up? A kid was hurt in an accident. I know TPM has an anti-gun agenda but there have to be better stories around.
Really, this “accident follows” a continuous string of shootings of kids by each other and under supposedly controlled circumstances. Don’t make it sound like an outlier pair of two!