‘My 4-year-old gets jacked up to target shoot,’ mom brags hours before he shoots her

Hours after gun-rights advocate Jamie Gilt bragged on Facebook that her 4-year-old son “gets jacked up to target shoot,” the same child accidentally turned his mother into a target, shooting her in the back.

The 31-year-old Jacksonville woman was driving down a road in Putnam County, Fla., on Tuesday when her son managed to get hold of a gun while he was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle, according to a statement released by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department.

Officials told the Florida Times-Union that the child fired a .45-caliber handgun that he found on the truck’s floor into the driver’s seat.

“She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back,” Sheriff’s Capt. Joseph Wells told the Times-Union. “There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but, however, the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them.”

Gun rights advocate Jamie Gilt is in stable condition after she was shot by her 4-year-old son while driving her truck, according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office in Florida. (WJXT)

Hours after gun-rights advocate Jamie Gilt bragged on Facebook that her 4-year-old son “gets jacked up to target shoot,” the same child accidentally turned his mother into a target, shooting her in the back.

The 31-year-old Jacksonville woman was driving down a road in Putnam County, Fla., on Tuesday when her son managed to get hold of a gun while he was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle, according to a statement released by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department.

Officials told the Florida Times-Union that the child fired a .45-caliber handgun that he found on the truck’s floor into the driver’s seat.

“She was shot through the seat and the round went through her back,” Sheriff’s Capt. Joseph Wells told the Times-Union. “There was a booster seat in the back of the vehicle, but, however, the boy was not strapped in when the deputy got to them.”

Under Florida law, “it a misdemeanor for a person to store or leave, on a premise under his or her control, a loaded firearm in such a manner that it is likely a child can gain access to the firearm.”

Gilt’s social media presence is filled with pro-gun messages, Second Amendment memes and posts supporting the NRA, as well as photos of her posing with weapons.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/03/09/my-4-year-old-gets-jacked-up-to-target-shoot-gun-loving-mom-brags-hours-before-her-little-boy-shoots-her/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_mm-gunboy-320pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

 

I have exactly two comments directly related to this story in the Washington Post, 09-March-2016:

• A misdemeanor??? Seriously???  That’s it … a misdemeanor???  First there was the “Stand Your Ground” law that let Trayvon Martin’s murderer off the hook, and now it is only a slap-on-the-wrist crime to leave a loaded gun where a small child can get it?  Florida needs to seriously re-assess its priorities!

• This woman almost got what she deserves, only not quite. Hopefully, when the deal is done, though, she will have lost her child and then I will say she got everything she deserves.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am firmly against guns in the hands of ordinary citizens.  But I am also a pragmatist and understand that, while we can and hopefully will at some point in the near future, implement solid and enforceable gun regulations, the 2^nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is not going away any time soon.  I accept that.  But this???  I think it should be a felony punishable by a minimum, mandatory sentence of ten years in prison to allow a child under the age of 18 to handle any sort of firearm.  I am thankful that, in this case, the child shot his mother and not himself, which would have been a genuine tragedy. Comments?