Girl Kills Herself With Wii Gun...

[Dynasty]

I bet Nintendo are rubbing their hands together with glee at how their master plan is finally taking effect.

A 3-year-old Tennessee girl accidentally shot herself to death after confusing her father's .380-caliber pistol with a Nintendo Wii game controller, according to the The Tennessean.

The paper quotes Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe as saying Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan picked up the deadly weapon from an end table and shot herself in the abdomen in her family's home rural Norene home Saturday night.

Investigators said the preschooler most likely mistook the pistol for a Wii game controller that looks like a gun.

Ashe displayed two guns taken from the home, one the Wii controller and the other the handgun which killed Cheyenne. "There's little chance a 3-year-old would differentiate between the two," he said, according to the Daily Mail.

The girl's stepfather, Douglas Cronberger, and her mother, Tina Ann Cronberger, both 32, were home when the shooting happened, Ashe said, and her mother was using a computer just a few feet away, The Tennessean reported.

According to a sheriff's department statement, Cronberger had taken the usually unloaded gun from a cabinet and loaded it to go look for what he thought was a prowler.

Afterward, he put the gun on an end table in the living room and forgot about it, the statement says.

Cheyenne had learned to use a gun by playing with a Wii game for days, the statement said.

"The big message we're trying to tell parents is if you've got a gun, put it up, especially if you have children," Ashe said.

Cheyenne was pronounced dead by doctors at the University Medical Center in Lebanon shortly after she arrived there.

No criminal charges are pending, authorities daid, but information from the sheriff's office will be turned over to prosecutors, The Tenneesean reported.

The girl's teacher described her as "a sweet, spunky little girl who will be sadly missed."

Ashe said a 1-year-old also lives in the home.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat..._it_was_a_wii_game_control.html#ixzz0hrHEJi5G

And I read this having JUST read an article about americans taking their guns out in public while shopping etc as 'protection', as its got something to do with that Constitution..something, I dunno.

[edit]

The fact of the matter is that I can now see how the child could have mistaken the real gun for the toy. Free from American manufacturing and product approval restraints, the Chinese manufacturer created a very convincing facsimile of a real weapon, especially when fitted with a black Wii remote.

That doesn't make them responsible for this death.

There is a very clear message in this story. If you own a handgun, or a gun of any kind, make sure you're responsible enough to keep it away from children. The presence of a lifelike gun controller for the Wii doesn't shift blame to Nintendo or a Chinese peripheral manufacturer. If anything, it piles more responsibility onto the shoulders of the parents. I can walk into any big electronics store and find two or three Wii gun controllers in several different shades of unrealistic gaudiness.

Instead of purchasing one of those, someone opted for the more realistic model, just like someone opted to leave a loaded weapon within reach of a curious three-year-old child with a notion that gun-shaped objects are fun to play with.

http://kotaku.com/5489137/wii-gun-involved-in-3+year+old-shooting-is-amazingly-lifelike

 

[Tagaziel]

In b4 "American gun culture is totally not to blame for this death. Guns don't kill people!".

That said, I hope the guy gets incarcerated for criminal negligence. Leaving a loaded, live weapon lying out in the open? Totally stupid.

 

[Dynasty]

Personally I'm surprised she had the strength to actually do it.

No trigger guard either?

 

[Stormy]

america! **** YEA!

 

[Darkside55]

Ashe displayed two guns taken from the home, one the Wii controller and the other the handgun which killed Cheyenne. "There's little chance a 3-year-old would differentiate between the two," he said, according to the Daily Mail.

Maybe if your child is fucking stupid, there isn't. At 3 years old you should be able to differentiate your game controller from a gun. My father, an officer, kept a loaded .38 in the house that he never locked up; he would very often just have the thing lying on the kitchen table, with rounds in it and/or placed around it. Never once at 3 years old did I ever mistake the thing for my NES Zapper, which arguably looked more like a real gun than the damned Wii lightgun. I never shot myself in the process of trying to play Duck Hunt, with a loaded gun not but five steps from the living room in plain reach.

If you're going to have a gun, at the very least educate your children on what the thing is and what the dangers of it are. 3 years old, despite adults' failing memories of what it was to be that age, is NOT too young to understand what a gun is. It's not too young to say to them, "This thing is dangerous. It will hurt you." THEN lock the thing up. But don't just lock it up and not tell your children what it is, in case you do leave it lying around. Gun safety is also gun education, not just keeping the thing out of your children's hands.

 

[Stormy]

Gun safety = no guns...

 

[Darkside55]

No guns = no safety

 

[Shift]

Maybe if your child is fucking stupid, there isn't. At 3 years old you should be able to differentiate your game controller from a gun. My father, an officer, kept a loaded .38 in the house that he never locked up; he would very often just have the thing lying on the kitchen table, with rounds in it and/or placed around it. Never once at 3 years old did I ever mistake the thing for my NES Zapper, which arguably looked more like a real gun than the damned Wii lightgun. I never shot myself in the process of trying to play Duck Hunt, with a loaded gun not but five steps from the living room in plain reach.

If you're going to have a gun, at the very least educate your children on what the thing is and what the dangers of it are. 3 years old, despite adults' failing memories of what it was to be that age, is NOT too young to understand what a gun is. It's not too young to say to them, "This thing is dangerous. It will hurt you." THEN lock the thing up. But don't just lock it up and not tell your children what it is, in case you do leave it lying around. Gun safety is also gun education, not just keeping the thing out of your children's hands.

This.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Safety on = no self shooting. Idiot parents.

 

[nurizeko]

As a mighty European, the notion of a gun lying around the family home as if some normal household object seems absurd.

Its a weapon, in many cases lethal, its intention is to severely wound and/or kill.

Nah I'm not gonna rag on US gun culture, god knows it wouldn't change anyone's mind, but seriously....

Guns in the same house where children are brought up is just stupid.

 

[GreatEmperor]

Alright NO ONE knows what the hell a dead 3 year old was thinking so this article is stupid, obviously. Another "games killed my boy" story, does Colt ****ing pay for these or something?

He thought he heard a prowler, dumb hicks

 

[VirusType2]

As a mighty European, the notion of a gun lying around the family home as if some normal household object seems absurd.

Its a weapon, in many cases lethal, its intention is to severely wound and/or kill.

Nah I'm not gonna rag on US gun culture, god knows it wouldn't change anyone's mind, but seriously....

Guns in the same house where children are brought up is just stupid.

No, this is absurd for Americans as well. Leaving a loaded firearm on an end table (probably 2 feet off the ground), off safety, with a 3 year old playing in that room? Mother not think anything of it, sitting at the computer next to it? Maybe she was playing Baby Raiser Online or someshit.

 

[Darkside55]

Guns in the same house where children are brought up is just stupid.

This could be debated ad infinitum (and probably has been on this forum), but even if you yourself are not in possession of a gun you should still teach your kids about guns, if for no other reason than you can never predict when they might come in contact with guns. They might go over to a friend's house whose parents own a gun they don't properly keep locked up, or some kid might bring one to school--not even for the purposes of shooting anyone, just to be "cool" and show off to his friends that s/he has a gun.

If such a situation were to arise you don't want your kids being dumb about it.

Leaving a loaded firearm on an end table (probably 2 feet off the ground), off safety, with a 3 year old playing in that room?

Once again, only a problem if your children are uneducated that the gun is a dangerous weapon. It's like touching the stove...your kids should know better than to touch the stove, but nobody LOCKS UP THE STOVE.

 

[Ezra]

It's like touching the stove...your kids should know better than to touch the stove, but nobody LOCKS UP THE STOVE.

Probably because the stove won't shoot you in the face when you touch it.

 

[Mr. Djees]

Never once at 3 years old did I ever mistake the thing for my NES Zapper, which arguably looked more like a real gun than the damned Wii lightgun.

In the kids defense:
http://kotaku.com/5489137/wii-gun-involved-in-3+year+old-shooting-is-amazingly-lifelike

 

[Darkside55]

In the kids defense:
http://kotaku.com/5489137/wii-gun-involved-in-3+year+old-shooting-is-amazingly-lifelike

Oh, well, shit. I thought it was the white lightgun she was using; y'know, that boxy-lookin' thing that's pure white.

Damn, they should take that thing off the market. That's worse than 1984 Megatron, or the Laser Tag guns that one kid in the '80s got shot by a cop over.

 

[Dynasty]

Uneducation for children is arguably different to 'schooling'.

Bare with me.

Just to go to Darkside's angle of touching the stove. The problem with that theory [edit - problem may be the wrong word here] is that kids learn FROM their mistakes.

You cant teach them everything. Just like you cant protect them from getting a cold. You shouldnt keep your house 100% clean so that they'll never get infected. You need that infection to develop an immune system. You need to let your child get sick.

You touch a hot stove/oven as a kid, you WILL remember not to do it again. My nephew has touched the glass of the oven before at xmas. My sister (her mum), after stopping his cries and comforting him etc, said 'You wont touch that again will you?', causing my nephew to shake his head quickly. Low-and-behold, he hasnt touched it since.

You fall off your bike and hurt yourself, you remember what happens when you fall off.

Its just a shame that the thing she was learning about ended up killing her.

I see this whole incident as mainly the parents fault, but also the so-called 'rights', but thats already been covered to death as an argument here on these forums.

I see you're not familiar with how mean a motherfucker the stove truly is. The stove would shoot you in the face for looking at it wrong. I say WOULD, but in all honesty, the stove isn't that nice. Shooting you in the face, see, you'd die...but then the stove takes no pleasure in your suffering. It's too quick. No, the stove wants to burn you. The stove wants to see you FEEL it. And it wants to leave a lasting impression: a burn, as horrible as it can inflict before you recoil from the pain. A reminder of the stove's malevolence.

If you ask me, people SHOULD lock up the stove before they lock up their guns. At least with a gun, you know its purpose is to wound or kill. The gun knows its purpose is to wound or kill, and it wants you to know that. But the stove, it masquerades as a helpful household object. "You can cook your food on me!" "Boil some water and enjoy your morning coffee!" "I'll help you try out that delicious recipe you read in that cookbook!"

But we all know the true face of the stove.

It's a monster.

The sheer insanity of that statement gave me the best laugh I've had in a while. The thought of comparing a stove to a gun.

Bahahaha.

 

[Sparta]

Oh, well, shit. I thought it was the white lightgun she was using; y'know, that boxy-lookin' thing that's pure white.

Yeah that's what I thought as well.

Either way, where the hell were the parents keeping their gun if their 3 year old child could find it?

 

[Reginald]

To be honest, if she shot herself she was playing the game wrong anyway.

 

[VirusType2]

Once again, only a problem if your children are uneducated that the gun is a dangerous weapon. It's like touching the stove...your kids should know better than to touch the stove, but nobody LOCKS UP THE STOVE.

I don't disagree with you about teaching your children. But keep in mind she is 3.

In the kids defense:
http://kotaku.com/5489137/wii-gun-involved-in-3+year+old-shooting-is-amazingly-lifelike

This is why we can't have nice things. If I recall correctly, there was a huge controversy over light guns that looked realistic back in the 80's. Brace for imminent Space Zappers to replace the guns. That's right, if you don't want your light gun to look retarded, either buy a PC light-gun, or get your console light guns now.

Either way, where the hell were the parents keeping their gun if their 3 year old child could find it?

Father left it on the end table where the child was playing and forgot about it.

Boy that gun sure kept his family safe from all the home intruders lurking around every corner.

 

[Darkside55]

I don't disagree with you about teaching your children. But keep in mind she is 3.

I see you didn't read my initial post in this thread, or remember how much you understood when you were 3.

But having found out what the peripheral in question looks like, then yes, there's virtually no way the child could have distinguished the two. Even an older child would be hard pressed to tell the difference.

The real question, then, is why the hell did the parents buy a peripheral that looked like that instead of one of the brightly-colored lightguns for the Wii?

 

[Hells Angel]

Are we sure that picture is the correct light gun? but jesus who the hell wants to own that? I much prefer my pink NES lightgun

 

[Dynasty]

If you look at the picture in the link, how she confused it with a .308 (which I'm assuming is a revolver then given the calibre) is beyond me.

[Edit] added the picture used in the column to the OP.

And nevermind what I said above, the gun owned was a semi-auto and the Wii gun DOES look similar.

I'm also surprised that the Chinese manufacturers were so easily able to make a Wii gun that looks so life-like.

 

[flamingdts]

Nice, they are shifting the blame to Nintendo when their own incompetence caused the damage.

 

[Eejit]

Tragic. Poor kid.

 

[highlander]

^ agreed

 

[Bob_Marley]

If you look at the picture in the link, how she confused it with a .308 (which I'm assuming is a revolver then given the calibre) is beyond me.

[Edit] added the picture used in the column to the OP.

And nevermind what I said above, the gun owned was a semi-auto and the Wii gun DOES look similar.

I'm also surprised that the Chinese manufacturers were so easily able to make a Wii gun that looks so life-like.

.380 ACP/Browning (9x17mm aka 9mm Kurz) is a rimless automatic cartridge used in small automatic pistols and machine pistols, such as the FN BDA380, MAC-11 and the Smith & Wesson .380 Sigma in this case

.308 Winchester (AKA 7.62x51mm NATO) is a rimless rifle cartridge used in weapons such as the FN FAL rifle and MG3 light machine gun

Just a point of interest - arn't toy guns in the US requried to have an orange tip? Because it certainly looks like the one in the image doesn't to me.

But still this is a tragic case.

 

[Avoidist]

To be honest, if she shot herself she was playing the game wrong anyway.

This. Tragic, but this. Kid must have had some issues the parents should have taken notice of if she always shot herself in the head every time she picked up the controller.

 

[Dynasty]

She shot herself in the abdomen.

Just a small point.

 

[Avoidist]

Ah, that would be what happens when I make up my own proceeding of events. File this one under just plain tragic then.

 

[Darkside55]

Just a point of interest - arn't toy guns in the US requried to have an orange tip? Because it certainly looks like the one in the image doesn't to me.

Yes, they are. This one, however, was from China and was purchased online.

 

[Bob_Marley]

Yes, they are. This one, however, was from China and was purchased online.

Don't they check that sort of thing at customs?

 

[Mr. Djees]

I doubt its the worlds most enforced law.

 

[VirusType2]

or remember how much you understood when you were 3.

She's three. I guess if you teach her not to shit in her pants, swallow the car keys, and throw her food on the floor, everything would have been cool too?

Maybe you could burn her fingers with a hot iron every time your three your old reaches for the pistolero.

Surely that should have been on the list of things to teach baby: show 3 year old daughter how to properly handle a firearm - check.

Yes, they are. This one, however, was from China and was purchased online.

Daddy ordered a special toy gun that looked just like his real one.

 

[RidleyRockets]

If you showed me an unguarded loaded gun when i was 3 i would then show you a 3 year old grinning his ****ing head off while holding a loaded gun.

 

[Darkside55]

She's three. I guess if you teach her not to shit in her pants, swallow the car keys, and throw her food on the floor, everything would have been cool too?

Dude, do you deal with dumb kids or something? Not shit her pants? Not throw food on the floor? Not swallow keys? AT THREE YEARS OLD? Jesus Christ. Like seriously, I don't know whose experiences are clouded here. Either you've seen some dumb kids in your time, or the children in my family (including myself) have given me what are apparently unrealistic expectations of EVERYBODY'S children.

If you're not potty-trained by two, you're slow.

If you're attempting to swallow car keys after a year and a half, you're slow.

If you're throwing food on the floor after ten months, there is a problem.

Surely that should have been on the list of things to teach baby - show 3 year old daughter how to properly handle a firearm - check.

3 years old != baby. I was helping my father clean his gun at 3. Helped me have an appreciation of it, and know not to handle the thing like a goddamn idiot.

 

[VirusType2]

I was helping my father clean his gun at 3. Helped me have an appreciation of it, and know not to handle the thing like a goddamn idiot.

Well, to be fair, he did teach her how to handle it. He taught her how fun it is to pick one up and shoot one, on a video game.

 

[Hells Angel]

I was helping my father clean his gun at 3. Helped me have an appreciation of it, and know not to handle the thing like a goddamn idiot.

Are we heading into innuendo city?

 

[Darkside55]

Well, to be fair, he did teach her how to handle it. He taught her how fun it is to pick one up and shoot one, on a video game.

Heh. But that does bring up the question of what he was trying to achieve by buying a replica gun for the Wii. Maybe he was intentionally trying to not to distinguish between the two of them, for some reason. Maybe he was trying to bring her up to be a gun nut, and it--no pun intended, honestly--backfired on him.

If you've got a gun you're equating to "fun" instead of "danger," then you're definitely to blame. It's a shame it ended up in this girl's death.

Are we heading into innuendo city?

Heh.

 

[StarBob]

The real culprit here? Irresponsible gun owners. If you're going to go out and buy a deadly device, don't be retarded and leave it on a table well within the reach of young children. How could someone be so stupid? There have been realistic plastic guns on the market for decades. I doubt it's this company's fault for making one that is no different than the rest.

Honestly, I don't know a person in the world that would blame anyone but the father outside of a lawyer looking to get his hands on some money. This guy should never be allowed to own anything sharper than a spoon if he's that dull, tragedy aside.