Yet Another Gun Owner Gets Shot by Her Own Kid

A Florida mom is wounded by her four-year-old.

Shutterstock

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


A day after Florida mom Jamie Gilt apparently boasted on Facebook about her four-year-old son’s affinity for target shooting, the boy gained access to a .45 caliber handgun and accidently shot her through the torso, according to the Florida Times-Union:

[The] post, shared on the Jamie Gilt page Sunday, shows an image of two burglars breaking into a home with a message below saying guns are not the answer, but calling 911 is. In disagreement, Gilt shared the photo and commented that the criminals might change their plans if they knew they were going to get killed.

The post included other comments in a discussion that defended the right to carry guns.

“Thanks. All of ours know how to shoot too. Even my 4-year-old gets jacked up to target shoot the .22,” Gilt responded Monday evening on Facebook after someone commented on the post.

Gilt was wounded and lived. The Facebook page cited in the article belongs to a woman whose biographical details match the shooting victim’s. 

This is just the latest example of a child who gains access to an unsecured gun and winds up accidentally shooting a family member or himself. A Mother Jones investigation found that in the year following the Newtown massacre, at least 194 children were shot to death.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate