An Idaho nuclear research scientist, Veronica Rutledge, was killed Tuesday in a horrific accident where her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded handgun from her purse and shot her at a Wal-Mart. The gun was in the Christmas gift that Rutledge had received from her husband: a purse with a special pocket for a concealed weapon.
Rutledge, 29, worked at the Idaho National Laboratory and (like her husband) was a gun aficionado.
The loss in Idaho for this family is truly horrific. I do not believe (as some have suggested) that this tragedy is an indictment of gun ownership or even the expansion of concealed weapons permits. In Idaho, more than 85,000 people — 7 percent of the state population — are licensed to carry concealed weapons.
What I do believe that the tragedy shows is the still rudimentary state of firearm technology. We have previously discussed how the introduction of “smart guns” could eventually lead to product liability claims in cases of accidental discharges, particularly involving children. One of the most disturbing aspect of this accident is the ease with which a round can be discharged by a toddler. It is not clear if the safety was on the weapon, though as an experienced gun owner I assume that Rutledge had the safety on. However, it is not difficult for a child to switch of a safety. Many new guns will still not discharge without being held by the owner due to an activating ring or other recognition factor.
As noted earlier, there is a chance that “dumb” guns will be viewed as defective. At one time, seat belts and air bags were viewed as extravagances. Personalized guns, or smart guns, can use RFID chips or other proximity devices as well as fingerprint recognition or magnetic rings. Magnetic ring guns are already available. There are even new designs that would allow biometric sensors in the grip and trigger known as (DGR) Dynamic Grip Recognition, which the New Jersey Institute of Technology says can distinguish an owner with 90% accuracy.
Under the two basic tests for product defects such new designs can change the legal equation. Under the Second Restatement test of 402A, product design is defective is it is more dangerous than the expectations of the ordinary consumer. New technology can shape such expectations as smart guns become more prevalent. Under the Third Restatement, “a product is defective in design when the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design … and the omission of the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe.” This could be claimed as such an alternative design if the costs come down and there is no real alteration in functionality.
While the public safety benefits are obvious, the NRA has generally opposed these guns as having the potential for gun control options in future legislation. In all honesty, it could. While the Supreme Court has recognized that individuals have Second Amendment rights to bear arms, it did not rule out reasonable limitations. Mandatory safety designs would likely pass muster in some cases. Torts and technology have long had a unique relationship in the law. This is one technology that may be coming not only to a store but a courtroom near you.
Rutledge was valedictorian of her high school class and graduated in 2010 from the University of Idaho with a chemistry degree. She published several articles, including one that analyzed a method to absorb toxic waste discharged by burning nuclear fuel.
Source: Washington Post
Isaac:
“If Adam Lanza’s mother had been obligated to attend a training course and had been made aware of the dangers her arsenal might pose, given her son was unstable, the slaughter might, just might have been avoided.”
Are you telling us that Adam Lanza’s mother did not understand that guns could kill people? Or that a gun safety class would make her realize that her son was unstable, when multiple medical professionals were unable to convince her?
I do like gun training classes, and encourage people to take them. Whether they should be a requirement for gun ownership, which is a right, is up for debate. But no gun class would have solved Mrs Lanza’s problem of denial and enabler.
And may I add that many years ago, my father stopped a man from breaking into the house in the middle of the night, simply by chambering a round. He said not a word. That man was breaking into a house at night, when a family was home. He was going to be inside in seconds.
There was silence for a beat, and then a man’s voice apologized, and said he would be going now.
Pat:
“Guns are for cowards.”
Hi Pat. The last time we used a firearm at our house was to kill a 4-plus foot rattlesnake, that was striking at our dogs. Due to its length, it is risky to try to kill it with a shovel, because of its striking distance. In addition, due to the hot weather, this snake was very, very fast. It’s not going to just sit there while you walk up to it with a shovel. After it was dead, my husband removed the head with a shovel to keep any wildlife from getting poisoned. It took several hacks, because the shovel is not an axe.
In my neighborhood, a mountain lion killed a horse. My neighbor had to shoot a coyote who had lost its fear of humans (some moron was feeding it). It was at her backdoor growling, refusing to back down. She has a 4 year old little girl.
Not having a gun in this area is very foolish.
Olly –
Has a “threat” EVER knocked on your door? Do you live in dread of a gunfight breaking out?
I, too, mistrust biometric security, or “smart guns.” Heck, the fingerprint sensor on my iPhone doesn’t work 90% of the time.
Isaac
I find it hard to understand your being a member of the NRA.
The reason you find it hard to understand is that I am not a member of the NRA, as you would know if you read my comment from a few days responding to your comment about the NRA being radical or something. I respectfully asked that you give details on why you think they are doing and why you object. You have not responded.
I’m a numbers kind of person and very analytical. This was required in my previous occupation and it is in my nature…….. so when people bring up statistics comparing one thing to another and the data set that they are using is distorted, incomplete, not referenced or sourced and is not likely comparable to the other data set, my antennas go up and my bullsh*t-o-meter begins to register.
So argue away about the right to have guns and be stupid, negligent, ignorant, unschooled, ill trained, but no more for me,
You also completely ignore or decide to be purposely ignorant about my position stated in this very thread that there should be gun safety training for people who are purchasing any type of weapon as well as hunter safety training.
If you wish to debate with me, I would consider it a courtesy if you did not ignore my previously stated positions and not misrepresent those things that I have said and more importantly not ascribe to me positions that I have NOT taken. Thanks.
In debate class….you get an F.
I read about this tragic story, but nowhere did it state what type of weapon was involved.
If it was a revolver, there is no safety. Just pull the trigger and shoot. Pistols have safeties. Did she have her hand on the gun when it went off, trying to take it from him?
Parents are responsible for keeping their small children safe from pools, buckets of water, cleaning chemicals, knives, medications, vitamins, and weapons. If she was going to keep a firearm in her purse, with a small child around, she should have chosen something with a safety or trigger lock. Because kids inevitably get into their moms’ purses.
I grew up in a military house with loaded firearms. This sounds like a terrible, preventable tragedy.
Jay,
I have a family friend who is proud of her gun. It is locked away in her home safe available whenever the threat knocks on her door and announces she has about 5 minutes to prepare for her worst nightmare.
Isaac, I am not a big gun guy. I own one. I don’t have a concealed carry permit, but may some day. I am on record as agreeing in mandatory training. You talked about psychological requirements. That’s Orwellian. You seem to have backed off that.
DBQ
The faults within the arguments I contest can be recognized in the words, “restricting, does nothing”, “What’s missing is the ability and even the desire to control the illegal gun trade.”, “All the purchases….”
When you take an absolute position as is illustrated above, it is hard and perhaps even impossible to move in the right direction. To state that the present situation is perfect and reasonable takes that person out of the equation. The present situation is anything but perfect. To rectify it one must take the situation apart and deal with each part. Just because you’re alright does not mean the situation is alright. If, in fact, you are a responsible gun owner and believe in reasonable and rational approaches to the problem, then I find it hard to understand your being a member of the NRA. However, perhaps from inside you can do some good, if indeed you are a rational and reasonable person/gun owner.
The fact remains that the mother who was shot by her 2 year old is dead due to negligence or stupidity or both. She was in public and the kid could have shot anyone. This is exactly akin to driving in public. In this situation, there is a stronger argument for her having had to take some sort of qualification to carry that gun around in her purse, loaded, with a round in the chamber, in a purse that could have been pilfered by some criminal, etc, etc, etc. So argue away about the right to have guns and be stupid, negligent, ignorant, unschooled, ill trained, but no more for me, cuz I’m off to the range or more precisely out to the store.
Why do people go around with loaded guns? Is there THAT much of a chance of a firefight breaking out?
@ Ari.
I thought of making that reference to Fast and Furious. The operation where our government is actually IN the business of providing illegal guns.
Another faulty premise, or distortion of facts, in the gun control proponents arguments is the refusal or inability to distinguish gun deaths and mayhem by geographic areas.
The inner cities are far and away the areas where the most gun deaths and injuries and gun related crimes per capita occur. Compared to the statistices in rural, smaller cities and suburban areas. Don’t look at the demographics of those inner city areas!!! OMG you might have to face some real difficult and politically insensitive facts that have nothing to do with legal gun ownership and which problems will not be cured by any type of gun control. Especially that type of control which starts with denying legal responsible owners the right to bear arms.
DBQ said …
What is missing here in the US is the ability or even the desire to remove and control the illegal gun trade.
What? Wait! You mean that “Fast & Furious” thing was an aberration? 😉
Actually setting up illegal transactions is good for us? And here I thought our BATF was protecting us? Just not so much the collection of Mexicans who will die as a result….& who are disposable to this administration, contrary to the propaganda it puts out.
Uhmmm…color me biased since my parish is nearly all Mexican.
DBQ said …
I see no reason that anyone who is a legal and responsible gun owner would object to taking a firearms safety training course for all other gun ownerships …
Truth is, most of us do not object…even us “evil NRA” members 🙂
I am the very last person anyone who is careless is the slightest with any firearm wants to be around. Ask anyone who shoots with me regularly at the range I belong to….
As for RFID in firearms, no way, period. Manual controls, particularly those that disable the sear, force you to “think” and heaven forbid we think, of course. De-cockers are the best thing added to pistols since John Browning was a kid. Anyone who wants systems that don’t require thought per se is an idiot (in the kindest sense I can muster) and has no clue about safety, with firearms or otherwise. Did I mention I do not care for striker fired pistols with their allegedly “automatic” default safeties? Even urban folks who go out and buy a chain saw, to trim bushes I suppose, scare the crap out of me when they don’t bother to learn from an experienced handler how to use the device. What? You sawed a hole in your leg? Color me not shocked. 🙁
The main premise in my argument is that if statistics show that the US far outstrips other countries in death and mayhem due to guns, per capita, and some of these other countries allow their citizens to own guns, (Canada doesn’t even require them to be registered any more), then what is missing here in the US?
The main premise in your argument is faulty: in that you do not distinguish between LEGAL gun ownership and ILLEGAL ownership in the instances of death and mayhem due to guns per capita from each demographic. Until you make this distinction your arguments are not only faulty they are duplicitous and can be ignored.
What is missing here in the US is the ability or even the desire to remove and control the illegal gun trade.
Restricting guns and controlling the ownership on the legal side does nothing to reduce gun deaths by illegally obtained guns and guns that are possessed by criminals. All the restrictions on the purchase side by legal responsible owners is not going to stop the death an mayhem that exists in the criminal side of the equation.
When I was a kid in Ferguson I had a pet rattlesnake. I had to keep him hid out in a cage in the clubhouse in the backyard. The little shack with the sign that said No Girls Allowed. My parents did not approve of snakes in the house and would not have approved of the rattler. His name was Jesse. I had found him at Jeske Park which was a few blocks away. I think that someone else had let him loose there. Rattlers are not common in Ferguson. They are basically like Al Sharpton, outsiders. In 9th Grade I let him go but I hopped a freight train down by Universal Match and Elizabeth Avenue and took him down the tracks with me and got off at West Florissant over by Northland Shopping Center. I let him go at Norwood Country Club. I thought that a golf course would be a good environment for him terrain wise and if he bit anyone it would be an uppity golpher from Norwood. He slithered off by the 9th Hole. My take on it looking back is that kids should not have guns or rattlers. If they get guns they are likely to get roses. For all I know, some golfer right now is pushing up roses.
Jesse was named after a Missouri hero: Jesse James.
BarkinDog – surprised that you named the snake after a Confederate terrorist and bushwacker, later serial killer.
Nick
If someone has to be ‘interviewed’ to get a driver’s license, then they should have to be ‘interviewed’ to get a gun. Training and licensing should also apply. The main premise in my argument is that if statistics show that the US far outstrips other countries in death and mayhem due to guns, per capita, and some of these other countries allow their citizens to own guns, (Canada doesn’t even require them to be registered any more), then what is missing here in the US? The answer can be found in the stalemate between the polar opposites. The solution is to tighten up in those areas where the 2nd amendment won’t be infringed upon yet the public will be safer. The answer lies in an intelligent, rational, and reasonable approach, not the one that exists in the US today.
If guns don’t kill people but people kill people, then the dead mother killed herself and ruined her son’s life. The father is complicit. As sad as it is, the blame lies on the mother and father. However, no good will come of it because the country is limited by extreme interpretations of words written two hundred and thirty-eight years ago when a few million racist and privileged white men designed a utopian society while fighting against what they deemed to be a foreign power. Sometimes you have to look real close at both sides of the coin. The words written back then were utopian and meant to be achieved. They knew their shortcomings. They also knew that change for the better was the necessary ingredient.
For myself, I support a citizen’s right to own a firearm, in the US, Canada, where ever. However, I would like to know that the guy across the street, has taken some safety classes, doesn’t leave his Glock under the seat of his unlocked car* at night, and doesn’t have a criminal past or talk to rocks.
*Not far from where I live and our son grew up, in a gated and ‘secure’ community, an idiot gun owner left his Glock under the seat of his unlocked car over night. He reported it stolen and explained the above. The question for ya’ll gun advocates is what happened to him? Well, nothing. What should have happened to him? Well, how about a hefty fine for allowing another illegal gun in the hands of criminals. How about a suspension of his 2nd amendment rights until he completes some courses on how to smarten up? How about a gauntlet of his neighbors to kick the living sh*t out of him? This idiot endangered my family. The NRA would fight to the death with guns in their cold cold hands to safeguard this idiot’s right to be negligent. Therein lies my point(s).
issac wrote: “If someone has to be ‘interviewed’ to get a driver’s license, then they should have to be ‘interviewed’ to get a gun. Training and licensing should also apply.”
Part of the problem is we stripped guns from public education. Now guns are not even allowed in the parking lot, but it was not that long ago that elementary school kids brought their rifles to school for target practice in P.E. class. Education is always the solution to problems, but the liberals have overtaken our public school system and removed education about guns and morality and religion. It is past time to fix all that.
Giving people “smart” technology creates stupid (careless) people. I used to know the phone numbers for many people until I got my first cell phone; not anymore. Give people smart guns and the accidents you’ll see will be people “demonstrating” how safe their smart gun is by giving it to their 2 year old to prove it won’t fire.
Suppose the gun did have an RFID safety (e.g. TriggerSmart). The activation ring or bracelet would have been on her person or in her purse. If it was in her purse (with the gun), then the safety was off. If it was on her person and she reached to get the child’s hand out of the purse, or to take away the gun, the safety would have gone off. It’s not clear to me how RFID would have helped. It seems quite likely that it would have made things worse by automatically disengaging the safety.
Here’s a video on youtube by the inventor:
Paul, Wise man.