Childress, TX — A young boy in Childress (which is in the panhandle of Texas) died last Friday after being accidentally shot by a gun. Police said that 10-year old Jackson Roberts passed away after being shot by his older brother, who was playing with a loaded shotgun.
Apparently, the sibling didn’t realize the gun was loaded when the gun accidentally discharged. The shotgun blast hit Jackson Roberts in his upper torso and he was immediately taken to a hospital by his father. However, Roberts passed away shortly after being taken to Childress Regional Medical Center.
The shooting is being regarded as accidental, nothing more, police said. At the time of the accident, Jackson and his family were a cabin in the Carey area of Childress. He was a 4th grade student at Roscoe Wilson.
Carey, TX
Commentary:
This is truly a tragic accident that I hope no family ever has to go through. Losing a child is especially hard and I can only imagine how terrible the family must feel in the aftermath. You might be wondering why this story is on a lawyer’s blog. I don’t mean to be insensitive, but there’s actually some legal discussion to be had here.
First, to whom did the gun belong? If the gun belonged to an adult who had allowed children to play with it, that’s what the law refers to as “negligent entrustment.” It basically means that by entrusting such a dangerous thing to a minor/the adult has exercised negligence and can therefore be punished both criminally and civilly. Of course, if the gun was owned by the child’s parents, that’s a different story altogether.
Guns and gun control are a popular discussion topic in Texas, it seems, and stories like this are always at the forefront of peoples’ minds. Regardless of my personal view on guns, I think that they should clearly be handled responsibly and that it makes good sense to punish those who leave children alone with access to guns – even for a moment. Now, I didn’t write this to sound condemning or discouraging, I merely wanted to bring up an area of the law that most people don’t know about. A fair number of people read this blog, so I want to make sure I have helpful information about relevant topics.
— Grossman Law Offices
