Two innocent young teens lost their lives to what appears to be the negligence of an adult on Monday, November 26th, just four days before Thanksgiving. If you remember from part one of this article, 14-year-old Julio Labrada and 15-year-old Jose Villarreal III were hanging out with their friend, 15-year-old Joseph Blanco in his garage when Blanco evidently found a loaded gun and started playing with it. The gun discharged one time striking both boys with that single bullet. One was hit in the chest and one in the head with the bullet finally coming to rest in the water heater behind them. Now we have a 15-year-old being charged with manslaughter when it is obviously is the fault of the parents. Tragic.
There are a few additional lessons we will continue with in this 2nd part of the post.
- Rules – It is best if you leave the range with your guns unloaded (except for the one you’re carrying concealed, of course). Nothing good can come from a range bag that has a random assortment of loaded and unloaded guns in it. I can only imagine what would have happened when it came time for the parent to clean them. NRA rule #3 for safe gun handling is “Always keep guns unloaded until ready to use.” In this case, it allegedly resulted in two teens getting killed.
- Ammo – Based on the way this single bullet traveled, it was most likely a full metal jacket (FMJ) practice round; hence, the range theory in pt. 1. A round like that typically does not stop in soft tissue and continues to travel allowing it to pass through to the next target. In this case it continued to travel through two teens before stopping in a water heater. It very well could have been a round fired from a sporting rifle. FMJ ammo is great for target practice, but you definitely do not want to carry it for self defense given the way it fails to stop in soft tissue.
- Carelessness and Ignorance – We teach about these two things in all of our classes. Carelessness and ignorance are the two things all gun accidents can be attributed to. Carelessness on the parent’s part to not employ the knowledge he or she had learned early on about gun safety. Ignorance on the child’s part because the parent failed to teach their kid about guns and gun safety. I am assuming the child lacked the knowledge, therefore he was ignorant.
It pains me to have a true story like this to draw from for a blog post. Hopefully, this article will make an impression on someone and a difference can be made.
Be safe,
– Joe Shahoud
Joe Shahoud is the owner and lead instructor at Safe Family Defense LLC, a firearms training academy that serves the greater Columbia, SC area specializing in pistol, concealed weapons permits, personal defense, and general education in personal safety. Visit their classes page to see what is available and enroll.
Joe is also the owner of Safe Family Safes, an online retailer that specializes in fast-access smart gun safes and other gear essential to the concealed carry lifestyle.
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