Whether he assumed the safety was on or not, The fact that this 13 year old thought it was okay to point a gun at someone, much less pull the trigger because they were jumping on the bed tells me there were loads of issues here long before this tragedy unfolded. A 3 year old might not understand it, but a 13 year old knows what they are doing. They may not fully grasp the cascade of consequences of what might happen, but they know what happens to the bullet when a trigger is squeezed. The parents definitely own some of the responsibility, but I’m glad it’s not up to me to sort out how much. The father in this story didn’t point the gun and he didn’t pull the trigger, but he sure set the table nicely for something bad to happen. Sad, sad deal. One kid is dead and the lives of everyone else involved are basically over.
Also, and I know I will catch some flak for this on this site, but in my opinion there is NO reason to have that live round in the chamber unless you are about to use the gun. This kind of accident would be prevented every goddam time if that rule was followed. It’s pretty easy to move a bullet from the magazine to the chamber at the time you feel you need to use it. I’m not talking about hunting or bear protection here either, but in my opinion you are just begging for trouble if you think you need a round chambered at all times.
