Last edited Tue Dec 30, 2014, 06:55 PM - Edit history (1)

said she lived elsewhere. Otherwise, yikes.

This going to be a lifelong tragedy for these kids.

I'm not catching the reference, refresh my memory if you would... Stewie?

(It's not ringing any familiarity bells.)

Stewie's was always plotting ways to kill his parents. ( Family Guy.)

The baby, "Stewie," wants to kill his mother at all costs. He's a baby genius and invents contraptions he can use to kill her. He has yet to be successful.

I never saw the show for more than 45 seconds so I had no idea that that is what the character's MO is.

Got it, thanks.

And, yeah, you just never know. I wanted someone to steal me from my parents from as far back as the age of two. But I never thought of ever using a firearm like that. I was introduced to firearms at age 4 - and I do mean actually shooting them - but I didn't have easy access to them. I was more accurate than my dad was then too.

Just never know where this woman's head was at... and who, but the child, can say what was going on in his head.


Stewie... now that makes me laugh!

higher prices.

Guns guns guns. Gotta have them guns.

from all those other people with guns.

and used the Stand Your Ground defense.

Other news stories indicate that she had her other older children with her, too.

Now, if they had all been armed, then they could have used their guns to protect mom.

However, reason and common sense are not part of the gun radicals equation; extrapolating their usual 'ideals' to this sad situation demonstrates just how looney they have become.

Recent events would also make a normal person question the wisdom of carrying a gun around in Walmart, but since I gather the dead woman and her family aren't black, maybe she didn't worry about that anyway.

This is already after the fact, but did she have the safety on, apparently not
Did she not take a gun safety class--I mean really.
What would really be tragic is if she was showing off this piece of death in front of friends and having a very inquisitive mind watching what this woman did with this death piece.
Children learn from what they see, its that simple

Had the gun been in a proper holster, this accident would not have occurred.

Help me understand this. I am a woman and I often carry a purse. It takes me several moments of rummaging to find anything in it - keys, cell phone, sunglasses.

I've known women who carry little revolvers - loaded - down in the bottom of their purses. What's the point of that? Are they going to ask the attacker to wait a second while they find their gun?

See post #71 for new data.

I suspect it is a glock with no external hammer, no safety, and she had one in the chamber "ready to go".

ONE person thinks of the victims first


Just to be clear I class the woman as a victim

not for the adults.

But then again, Tom Hanks won a couple of Oscars after inflicting "Bachelor Party" and "Joe vs. the Volcano" on everyone.

To my mind, anyone still capable of reproduction should qualify for this prestigious recognition.

Bachelor party had some very funny parts:

1. There was the scene where he hits home runs while playing tennis.

2. He drove a school bus on a date.

3. Oh yeah, and he acted like he was hitting home runs while playing tennis.

Oh, okay not his best work.

But it was better than Busom Buddies!

Classic!!

....it's more than a bit dangerous to do so, particularly with 4 apparently precocious kids in tow. Not what one would expect from someone who probably considered themselves a...."responsible gun owner." A pity she's dead, but geez, what a stupid thing to do.

That's the problem with widespread gun ownership: too many people are too careless and irresponsible to be trusted with deadly weapons!

When they talk about arming teachers and movie goers and people at all of the other places where guns were brought out to mercilessly kill people. They never talk about training all of these people with guns - they argue that we should just let them carry guns. I was in the army and I wouldn't be comfortable carrying a gun around in public because I don't feel that I've been trained adequately.

Sadly, this is the outcome of the 'guns everywhere' philosophy. I expect we will see more tragedies like this.

What are they going to tell the two year old? Your mommy is dead. As he gets older, how will they tell him that he killed his own mother?

And the children who witnessed there are also seriously psychologically harmed.

war on smart guns incidents like this would not happen.

Talk about two groups of arrogant, self centered, irresponsible d-bags who are the cause of countless serious injuries and deaths.

Its sad she forced her children to witness her own death by carrying a gun unsecured in her purse but its not the first time some half wit kept a loose gun in a purse.

Girl Recovering After Shooting Herself at Sam's Club

There are no bad dogs, only bad owners. We just got done rescuing a pit bull puppy and he was the sweetest most loving puppy imaginable. We rescued him out of an abusive situation and got him to a Pit Bull Rescue organization where he could be adopted into a family who wanted him and knew how to train him. Dogs are not inherently dangerous, and Pit Bulls are not a 'bully breed'. They are large, well-muscled dogs. Like any dog they will try and find their level when socializing with other dogs and/or humans. So, please don't somehow equate Pit Bull owners with stupid humans carrying firearms they don't know how to handle.

Equate stupid dog owners who do not know how to control their dogs with stupid firearm owners if you want, but your above statement is akin to saying "Dog owners and Colt .45 Revolver owners".

Hey, let's lay off the Pit Bull owners! There are no bad dogs, only bad owners.

Conclusion: Walmarts are bad for your health.

Sam's Club, Walmart, places to stay out off if you don't want to be hit by a stray bullet.

A woman walking around with a loaded gun in her purse and four kids to whom she was obviously not paying attention is not innocent.

Negligence is the correct word.

"Hayden" and "Hayden Lake" --

from your link:

are all over Idaho, especially in the North.

do so because they are afraid of black people. That seems to be the common denominator.

Lobbying by he NRA.

Need I say more?

if the two year old had shot someone else or even himself? I would like to think so, but I have my doubts.

The child has no idea what happened, only that he now misses his Mom. This is a tragedy and a symptom of our gun culture.

That place continues to kill people.

Neo-Nazis. I'm not saying she was attached to them but probably was. Most of the locals usually only carry rifles or guns out it the woods, not into Wal-Mart.

town folks and the Aryan Nation were at war with each other. It was the residents who asked the So. Poverty Law Center to do something about them because local law enforcement coukdnt or wouldn't. Although the SPLC succeeded in shutting down the compound and the old evil Rev. Butler died of old age, many of the families are still there in the area. The church still survives in a different place but it's there. I know people carry guns around with them because it's a wilderness area, but they leave them locked in their cars or trucks when they go shopping. The Aryans do and they are responsible for a lot of crime in the are because that's how they survive.

I'm only speculating, but I worked alongside with one of the wives who said her husband ordered her to carry a handgun with her everywhere. So again I'm only speculating here, but if you have ever had to be around these gun happy bigots, you'd know what I'm talking about.

They are so stupid, they will kill themselves off in short order.

The inside story of how an Idaho toddler shot his mom at Wal-Mart
By Terrence McCoy December 31 at 3:09 AM

Veronica Rutledge and her husband were a couple who loved everything about guns. They practiced at shooting ranges. They hunted. And both of them, relatives and friends say, had permits to carry concealed firearms. Veronica typically left her Blackfoot, Idaho, home with her gun nestled at her side. So on Christmas morning last week, her husband gave her a present he hoped would make her life more comfortable: a purse with a special pocket for a concealed weapon.

The day after Christmas, she took her new gift with her on a trip with her husband and her 2-year-old son. They headed hundreds of miles north to the end of a country road where Terry Rutledge, her husband’s father, lived. The father-in-law learned of the new purse.

“It was designed for that purpose — to carry a concealed firearm,” Rutledge told The Washington Post late Tuesday night. “And you had to unzip a compartment to find the handgun.

On Tuesday morning, that was exactly what Veronica Rutledge’s son did — with the most tragic of outcomes. Veronica, 29, arrived at a nearby Wal-Mart in Hayden with her three nieces and son, her gun “zippered close” inside her new purse, her father-in-law said. Then, in the back of the store, near the electronics section, the purse was left unattended for a moment.

“An inquisitive 2-year-old boy reached into the purse, unzipped the compartment, found the gun and shot his mother in the head,” Rutledge said. “It’s a terrible, terrible incident.”

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/31/the-inside-story-of-how-an-idaho-toddler-shot-his-mom-at-wal-mart/?tid=hpModule_9d3add6c-8a79-11e2-98d9-3012c1cd8d1e

against the manufacturer of the purse.

Wait and see.

I think that if a person is carrying a concealed and non-concealed gun they are paranoid.
What is it they can go around and say and tell everyone around them looky I have a gun, or I have a gun and I don't have to tell you----really.
Did the infamous Wal Mart have a sign up out in the front stating that no firearms under any circumstances are permitted in the store, bet not, are they not libel and responsible, just like the manufacture of the gun, for the other shoppers NOT carrying a GUN, how about the owner of the property----how about the person holding and carrying the gun, conceal or not concealed its called responsibility.
Why would I want to shop at some place or go to someone's property were the shop is on there land if they are not responsible for those idiots carrying a gun on the property or the shop
A gun is not a toy, and to treat it as a toy by having a special purse just begs the question, why did she have it in the first place while shopping---- I mean really.
Did she leave the purse in the shopping cart---most likely, that is just stupid, the purse was more than likely right next to the kid sitting in the shopping cart----duh.
Are people that stupid, do they not have any common sense, when it comes to a gun.
Did she bring this gun to work---really, if she was a nuclear scientist at a plant would they allow this, don't think so.
Did she not have a gun safety class, all guns have a safety, did she always walk around with shell in the chamber and have it loaded, that is just irresponsible.
In the military , law enforcement, you do not lock and load until you were on a mission, and then you had the safety on and you HAD to unlock the safety and load a shell.

that was supposed to keep the gun safe. Her husband gave it to her as a Christmas gift. A friend of mine had one of those many years ago, which is how I know a 2 year old could easily find the gun and start playing with it. What got me in the article in the Washington Post that I read on this story was how upset her father-in-law was . . . . . . . . at people who were using this tragedy to try and inject some sanity into the gun culture in the US.

no more to do with safety than any holster. That's what locks do - this has no lock at all. It is designed to keep a weapon at the ready. Which it was. And then it was laid in front of a 2 year old who was then left alone with it.

By a degreed chemist from a national nuclear laboratory, so likely very smart, 29 year old mother of 4.

May she rest in peace.

I drove through Hayden over twenty years ago. I've been to Blackfoot too. I know what the areas look like, and that's it.

The woman worked at INEL. Whoops, it's had a name change: Idaho National Laboratory.

Toddler shoots, kills mother in North Idaho Wal-Mart

December 31, 2014 in Idaho
Becky Kramer And Nina Culver Staff writers

A nuclear research scientist died Tuesday after her 2-year-old son pulled a loaded pistol from her purse and shot her while she was shopping at the Wal-Mart store in Hayden.
....

Rutledge, a 29-year-old resident of Blackfoot, Idaho, died instantly.
....

Rutledge, an employee of the Idaho National Laboratory, was visiting family in Hayden with her husband, Colt. She had taken the children to Wal-Mart so they could spend their holiday gift cards. Her son, who was riding in a shopping cart, got a hold of the loaded pistol in her purse and shot her at 10:20 a.m. in the store’s electronics department.
....

She grew up as Veronica Hendricks in Harrison, where she was the 2004 valedictorian of Kootenai High School. She attended North Idaho College, graduated from the University of Idaho, and went to work for the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls, which supports the U.S. Department of Energy in nuclear and energy research and national defense.
....

Staff writer Becky Kramer can be reached at beckyk@spokesman.com or (208) 765-7122. Nina Culver can be reached at ninac@spokesman.com or (509) 927-2158.

The tree of liberty, it seems, must be refreshed from time to time by tragic accidents. That poor family. That poor kid.

Fucking gun culture.

The responsibility of an adult with a weapon is to keep it safe!

(I assume it was a handgun to be in a woman's purse)

It is either has to be cocked and/or the safety should be on.

No?

Like Glocks and all revolvers.

Not all handguns need external cocking of hammers as many do not have hammers any more.

should not be manufactured, sold and used.

But then..