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Child Dies By Gunshot At Yellowstone National Park Campground

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Published Date

September 7, 2013

A young girl died after reportedly shooting herself in a Yellowstone National Park campground Saturday.

A short park release said that park rangers "responded to a 911 call from a woman at the Grant Village Campground, who told the emergency dispatcher that her young daughter had shot herself with a handgun."

Resuscitation efforts by responding emergency medical staff were unsuccessful.

The incident is under investigation. The child’s identity was being withheld pending notification of extended family members.

No further information was expected before noon Sunday, the release said.

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Comments

Submitted by Megaera on September 8, 2013 - 12:02am.

Oh, my gosh. That's awful.

I won't go into my standard rant about gun control, but I am so biting my tongue here...


Submitted by edmond macgregor on September 8, 2013 - 6:19am.

Truly horrible accident, and you can stop biting your tongue and think about the situation, it appears that it isn't gun control but parental control that would have probably saved the child's life.


Submitted by Gila Monster on September 8, 2013 - 9:07am.

The question in the first place remains anyway: why bring a gun into a National Park?


Submitted by ecbuck on September 8, 2013 - 9:21am.

Why not?


Submitted by Roger Siglin1 on September 8, 2013 - 10:27am.

Might as well try to have a rational discussion about religion instead of guns.


Submitted by Megaera on September 8, 2013 - 3:36pm.

If the parents hadn't owned the gun in the first place...

But I agree with whoever just said might as well try to talk religion as gun control.


Submitted by ecbuck on September 8, 2013 - 5:28pm.

And Megaera, if we didn't have cars we wouldn't have people killed in car accidents. If we didn't have ropes we wouldn't have climbers falling. If we didin't have bears, we would have people mauled in the park, ....... Of course all of those "didn't haves" have consequences - like there would be for the millions that defend themselves each year with a gun.

It is no wonder the gun control advocates equate the debate to religion, since religion is based on faith not facts.


Submitted by Ted Clayton on September 8, 2013 - 7:39pm.

It's tragic that a child has been harmed, and that parents & family are aggrieved, firstly.

This is the first firearms death I've heard of, since the ban in Parks ended.

Campgrounds are not-infrequently fairly edgy places. I had great fun in them, back when I was a participant in the illicit & boisterous activities for which some folks think campgrounds are the logical & obvious venue.

That some headed for the campground might think, 'Hmm - better pack that pistol', is a reaction that has a degree of rationale behind it. Folks are known go to the campgrounds to 'have fun', for a little recreational substance-abuse. We hear them getting loud, personalities shifting. Some go beyond the usual 'bar-patron' behavior; serious drug-activity, and peripheral gang-type posturing arises too.

A few in the campgrounds, will have an 'external' reason or motive to be armed, 'everywhere' they go. A female with a threatening male ex-partner, repeatedly violating restraining-orders, for example.

'Crazies' show up in campgrounds, too. Drifters and borderline homeless, with ramshackle vehicles they might be surreptitiously repairing. Ratty tarps strung up, etc. Taking up residence too near one of these for the weekend can increase the caution with which we view campgrounds.

But certainly, if a firearm is the choice that is made, there is a big responsibly involved. Any gun that a young child can get to, isn't being handled right.


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