this is beyond horrible for that family,

The mother who we can only hope is broke up with guilt, will take me a bit longer to reconcile my feelings for.

I wonder if she even bothered yelling out a warning first.

"St. Cloud Police officials say they aren't releasing the names of the mother or daughter since a person in their household is in law enforcement, and Florida law permits the withholding of identities in such cases."

So, nothing to see here, move along.

Very impressive. I hope that gun is still making her feel safer.

At least the flat screen TV was not stolen! Can't be too vigilant with all these burglars around.

I caress the barrel of my gun and moan soft and low....yeah baby!

Mistakes can happen, it could have been an intruder...

very very sad...

She and the NRA will point up that whatever the circumstances, she was secure.

until I finally convinced him, the safest thing is to keep the gun unloaded with the ammo stored elsewhere. when it comes to gun deaths, there are no legitimate accidents.

And doing so would not have helped in this case anyway.

The reason for the empty chamber is so that there is no round under the hammer, thus preventing an accidental discharge if the hammer is hit on something or the gun is dropped.

It would not help in this case since a full round would be rotated into position when the hammer is cocked before firing.

It however could not have been mine.

I did loose a nephew in my family to guns but he was shot and killed at his friends house whose dad was into guns and the gun accidentally went off into his heart when it was being shown to him. He would have been way safer at his own gun free home. Seth was 16 when he was killed by a gun owner who thought he was responsible but claimed no responsibility after he killed Seth.

However, this would not happen at my house either.

That gun did not get loaded by accident. It was not discharged by accident.

There are no "accidents" with guns...only negligence, carelessness and stupidity.

with a gun. I feel sad for the daughter and her friends, who will miss her because of her mother's stupid actions. It doesn't take much to call out, "Who's there?"

No worries though, they should be along in 5..4..3..2..1..

Leads me to believe that a firearm in the house increases the likelihood of someone in that house getting shot without due cause.

If someone wants a gun because they want to hunt, target practice, or they just like stroking precious and dreaming up gun fantasies, fine, but the idea that guns make people safer is nothing more than gunnuttery.

in the hell Florida has a law that shelters the names of people involved if one is in law enforcement? What's that all about?

If the shooter was the cop, in my state that would be very bad in this case. LEO is held to a higher standard for justifiable homicide, than joe home user.

The bar for justifiability is HIGHER for Law Enforcement than it is for non-LEO.

That doesn't necessarily translate into prosecutions, however.

She won't recover; two lives lost.

I suspect they won't charge her for anything though. Gunnuts are not held accountable - just like that guy who shot his 2 year-old niece in the face on Christmas last week when he was cleaning his gun. The police said in the story that morning that he wouldn't be charged and it was just an "accident." Mothers against drunk driving stopped people considering drunk driving deaths as just accidents back in the 80's. Seriously, it was hard to get dunks charged because people thought the guilt was enough. We need mandatory charges for when people "accidentally" shoot and or kill others.

Doesn't identify who she's shooting?

Unbelievable.

Are people so damn paranoid that their first thought at hearing a noise is it must be a (and I hate this phrase) "home invasion"?

But damn, I hope I have sense enough to know what the hell I'm shooting at before I ever pull the trigger.

Paranoia, I think you nailed it. Some people are just scared of their own shadow, and so all common sense just goes out the window.

I don't own a gun, but I know gun owners who are very responsible and level-headed people. It's hard for me to imagine them doing something so tragically stupid as happened in this incident. Same goes for those reports of someone accidentally shooting a loved one because they thought the gun was empty. As I say, I don't own a gun but I've shot guns and was trained beforehand to always assume a gun is loaded and to treat it accordingly. One moment of carelessness can lead to a lifetime of remorse and regret.

I've shot a gun one time in my life. I think it was a .22 caliber rifle. Other than that, I've never touched a gun. If, however, I should happen to change my mind and get one, I know I'm taking all the safety courses I can. And I hope I have sense enough to use and maintain it properly and responsibly. I know one thing's for sure - I will never shoot wildly in the dark without having absolute certainty of whom the person is, and in what context. For example, if I find someone committing a non-violent act in my home such as stealing, say, my TV, I am not going to shoot them. I do not want to take a life. If, however, they are raping a member of my family, of otherwise causing immense bodily harm to myself or to a member of my family, I would have to use my weapon to stop the threat or act. Like I said, I don't want to take a life just because I'm "allowed" to in my home.

is not an accident, and should never be referred to as such. It is gross negligence and irresponsibility, and people who do it should be held to blame. As you correctly point out, if you have a gun in your hand, you always assume that it is loaded and handle it accordingly, unless you personally have verified that it is not.

It doesn't mean they're hell-bent on murdering you. Like, there are several actually positive situations for this. Maybe it's your significant other trying to surprise you. Maybe it's someone who knew the previous owner and you never changed the locks. At worst, maybe it's just a stupid teenager who saw your TV in the window and decided they wanted it. But gun culture is so fear-inspiring that suddenly everyone's out to get you, and the only solution: kill or be killed. So if you hear someone else that's not (normally) supposed to be there, then you get out your gun...
Paranoid is right.

we have kids home from college right now. They go out and sometimes they stay out. More than once, they've come home even though they thought they might sleep over at a friend's house. I usually hear noises in the kitchen and I assume it's one of them or one of their friends getting a snack. My first thought ISN'T my god I need to kill whatever is downstairs right now.

I don't get how this lady would just shoot without finding out what the hell was going on first.

Whoops, there I go race-baiting again.

is too horrible to imagine.

Nobody ever thinks it can happen to them until it does.

kid with the light on in an "accidental" home shootings, or leave it out for their toddler or young child to kill their sibling/another family member. The gun lobby prevents us from keeping statistics because its rampant.

Btw, Google any days date and "child shot" and you will see a child is shot and killed EVERY DAY in America - some days many kids.

today:
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=december+30th+2015+child+shot

A two year old boy was shot in the head today and a baby was shot and killed.

It is all negligence.

Interesting that they are covering this up

You have a gun, draw and fire in the dark without knowing of a threat?

That's murder, certainly negligence.

in the same way, as he comes home unexpectedly late one night.

If that's her only child, then she's a Darwin Award winner.

Of the 2nd amendment

should not be in the police force - if, indeed, the mother is.

I know personally are way more paranoid than Joe Average. I guess it goes with the territory.

who are.

The mother could have had an abortion instead.

I called BS then and still do. Here's yet another disgusting example of someone with a gun making a serious mistake. Her daughter would be alive today if the mom wasn't such a gun nut that she had it loaded and accessible while she was still partially asleep.

It was gross negligence and violation of basic gun safety rules.

In fact, most if not all of the so-called "accidents" with guns are really nothing of the sort. Our culture of gun-worship requires that the media and law enforcement treat them as such in most cases, though.

However, I would argue that she accidentally shot her daughter as she had no intentions of hurting her.

Keeping the loaded gun close at hand was not negligent, if it was handled properly and not accesible to kids. The negligence was opening fire without even knowing what she was shooting at. That's a violation of the most basic gun safety rules and not remotely an "accident". "Unintentional" does not necessarily equate to "accidental".

Considering the mom is being protected to the point that her name is not being released, I personally am taking the story with a grain of salt.

The woman shot her daughter in her own home. That's all we know.

That should tell you if they are rare or not.

Gun negligence, however, is rampant.

Numbers to support this? Felon on felon murders are "rampant," and make up the majority of gun murders, but not sure that "gun negligence" is "rampant."

I think it was both negligent and accidental.

If you're going to break a rule let it be so you can ID your target.


My SD pistol is a SA/DA p-09 with a rail mounted light. Of course I also keep a 180 lumen light along side the pistol.

Safety first, shooting the wrong person never.

The one the gun is pointed at, and the one holding the gun.

It works both ways.

She would have seen it was her daughter and the daughter could have begged for her life.

Thankfully, she didn't have a light and was able to kill without warning or risk to her family.

never happen TO ME!

and god knows what else.

I can't imagine the horror when a parent realizes they've killed their child instead of a prowler!!!!

They are literally killing machines. That's what they're made for. They must be strictly regulated.

Identify your target, what is behind it, and what is beyond it.

the next time our resident gun enthusiasts start storm-trooping for the rights of the sight-deprived to own and use firearms. There have been a number of threads devoted to that very subject here at DU, over the years.

for concealed carry permits. Now no one even needs a cc permit at all, because of further loosening of the rules for guns.

They are very different.

after the law was changed (emphasis added):

What's #3? Shoot quicker than the bad guys?

Rule #1 – All guns are always loaded.

Rule #2 – Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy or kill.

Rule #3 – Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on the target.

Rule #4 – Identify your target, and what is behind it, and what is beyond it.

Unfortunately, too many folks don't have enough training.

not good for you or society. If you find it relaxing or something, talk to somebody.

The mental and physical challenge of good marksmanship can also be relaxing.

a deep sleep and have not yet fully climbed back to consciousness. Heck, the shooter might still have had one foot in a dream that had just turned terrifying because the monster (human or otherwise) that had been chasing her had just gotten so close that she could actually hear his footsteps!

We are all so overworked and sleep deprived that even when our three (or more!) alarms go off we sometimes have trouble waking up enough even to remember what day it is, or whether it is early morning or early evening when we notice the weak light outside the window.

One summer evening, a Friday, I thought we were in danger of a tornado because I believed it was daytime but the sky did not look right. The light was all weird and "overcast," and it seemed oddly colored. That's because it was about 8:00 in the evening (daylight savings time), not 8:00 in the morning. IOW, I'd mistaken the light just before dusk for full morning light because I had just awakened from a nap after an exhausting week with far too much work and too little sleep.

The reason I thought "tornado" is that I live in Kansas, it was tornado season, and I had often seen weird sky/light right before dangerous storms, including those that spawned tornadoes.

Undoubtedly, if I were the sort of person who is scared enough of home invasions to always keep a loaded gun right by me while I sleep, I would, upon hearing footsteps rapidly approaching my bedroom, immediately jump to the "disaster" scenario that occupies the main spot in my fear (or at least my "be prepared!&quot geography. In my case, when faced with a weirdly lit sky, my lizard brain thought, "What must I do to protect myself from the imminent storm?" The "Oh, no! Home invasion--and they are right outside my bedroom!" mind would immediately jump to the defensive behavior she had always expected to have to resort to someday.

Yes, I do believe people who regularly keep a loaded gun by them while they sleep do so because they believe it likely that they *will* need to use it someday. In fact, I suspect that many of them have home invasion nightmares just as I have nightmares about situations that provoke anxiety in me--or those that have provoked my anxiety in the past.

So that is a real possibility--i.e., that the sound of the opening door as the daughter returned caused the mother's sleeping mind to slip into a home invasion dream, and the sound of rapid footsteps closing in on her provoked a defensive reaction, one she had mentally rehearsed both consciously and subconsciously, that was still halfway--or even more-- still part of the dream. And just as our dreams don't stick with us as we fully awaken, the mother might not even remember dreaming. She would remember only that moment of panic when she reacted to what *felt* like a terrifying home invasion.

rules of thumb like "be sure of your target," "shoot center mass," and similar BS. And just in case the screw up, they are well trained on what to tell police.

If Zimmerman were to make a video on "What to Tell Police When You Kill an Unarmed Teen," he'd pay off all his debts and become a 1%er.

What better form of self defense for her, since clearly she is concerned about being safe behind her own locked doors.

Hold her up as an example, that any criminals should avoid her residence. Beware of this house, the owner is willing to shoot and kill her own daughter, so she will not think twice about killing you.

If I was a burglar, I certainly would want to stay away from her house, so letting her address be known would be a blessing for her.

how about burglers know where there is a gun to steal?

if she a cop or if a cop is in the house. She just murdered someone. Plus since she want to kill anything that threatens her without waiting to see who she's killing, everyone else ought to be warned of where she lives. What if someone else in her family shows up unexpected? Or friends, or neighbors? One thing is for sure, this example of a gunowner brought this on herself. yelling out, "I'm on the phone with the police" would have gotten rid of most real thieves. And warning the intruder that she has a gun if they persist would have likely helped. I doubt most gunnuts consider anything but their chance to finally get to shoot someone. But then I also consider the extreme paranoia they must be in to begin with to have a gun at the ready. Yeehaw. Gunnut kills own kid - again.

and she is a gun humping idiot but they are a dime a dozen

I have zero sympathy for the mother, and hope she is prosecuted for the murder.

Shoot first, identify the intruder later is *such* a good idea.

I mean, if this (probable) cop wanted to be rid of her daughter, she shoots her, says she mistook her for an intruder, and even gets to keep her name out of the media. License to kill, whether intentional or accident.

Police: Daughter Shot by Mother Was Visiting for Holidays
By The Associated Press
ST. CLOUD, Fla. — Dec 30, 2015, 7:23 PM ET

A woman fatally shot by her mother in central Florida after being mistaken for an intruder had been visiting for the holidays, police said Wednesday.

The mother was asleep when she heard someone enter her home late Tuesday, St. Cloud police Sgt. Denise Roberts said Wednesday. The mother told police she heard footsteps approaching quickly so she fired a single shot.

She then discovered the person was her 27-year-old daughter, according to a news release from police. The daughter had been visiting from North Carolina and didn't live in the home, Roberts said. The daughter was taken to a hospital where she died. The mother also was taken to a hospital for treatment.

St. Cloud police officials said the mother is a 911 dispatcher for Osceola County and her husband is a St. Cloud police corporal. The Associated Press isn't naming the family members because of the husband's past work as an undercover narcotics officer, as well as the fact that no criminal charges have been filed.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-mother-mistakes-daughter-intruder-shoots-36011562

You wake up groggy and in thrall to your easily panicked and not at all rational reptile brain.

She could have defended herself.

than stories where an actual intruder gets shot by the homeowner.

how about that gunnut who killed his wife in his garage who thought she was a raccoon?

more likely to kill or maim a loved one than an intruder would form a support group that then would undertake an educational mission to warn those who have not *yet* suffered such tragedies about the risks they are taking if they keep loaded guns where they are so easily accessible--not just to kids, but to themselves when they are groggy from sleep or under the influence and thus not thinking clearly or acting responsibly.

Advanced training in tactics and mindset is important for effective and safe home defense. I wish there were organizations financing this.

The daughter may not have been aware that her mother kept a gun near her at night.

The mother may not have known her daughter was going to be entering the home late that night.

Regardless, this is another instance where a person convinces themself that they need a gun for self protection but end up with very tragic results.

wait, and whether she got the right target. They don't mention if there was any argument or animosity, other motives. They seem determined to prove this an "unintentional" act.

Seems unlikely to have a dispatcher with so much fear and anxiety she wakes up and starts blasting, but maybe.

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/police-mother-shoots-kills-daughter-after-mistakin/nptHY/

Not even shooting, but apply any deadly force. I wouldn't shoot a gun, shoot an arrow, throw a knife, or build an elaborate trap of gears, levers, chutes and pulleys without first having a pretty good idea what the target was.

There are probably plenty of guys he helped put in the pen who could have a grudge and would want to get into that house to do some harm. I don't blame the mom for having a gun. I would think, tho, that she would have been trained in using a flashlight as part of her prudent defense plan.

Shoot first, ask questions later.

Funny it always works in the movies?