Gun rights and restrictions have been a heated topic in politics for some time now, and gun owner and enthusiast Jamie Gilt has been voicing her opinion on the matter on Facebook the whole time, both on her personal page and a page she runs called “Jamie Gilt for Gun Sense.” Despite boasting about her guns, which she calls “toys,” and saying that her children know how to use them, Gilt was shot in the back yesterday by her 4-year-old son while she was driving.
Gilt’s pro-gun activism ranged from reasonable to downright illogical when it came to posting on her pro-gun page, which has already been taken down, so it’s difficult to get a read on how safe she really was, but the circumstances under which her son acquired the gun are shady at best. When a Florida deputy noticed a pickup truck with a horse trailer hitched behind it pulled slightly off the road, he stopped and quickly realized the woman inside was acting frantic. As he approached the woman, who was Gilt, she claimed that her 4-year-old had shot her from the backseat. The toddler allegedly picked up the firearm that was also in the back seat with him and shot his mother in the back, which went straight through her torso.
The deputy noted that although there was a booster seat in the back of the car, the child was not strapped in it when he approached the vehicle and spoke with Gilt. Investigators are working to see if the child was strapped in at the time of the shooting.
The day before the shooting, Gilt had taken to social media to brag about how her 4-year-old son “gets jacked up to target shoot with the .22.” This was in response to a commenter saying that her own daughter was taught how to carry and shoot guns and not panic in emergency situations. Gilt had also commented back saying that “all of ours know how to shoot too.” If they know how to shoot, perhaps her toddler shot her on purpose then…
Because of the boy’s age, this shooting has been determined an “accident,” although in situations where a child shoots someone else the true cause is carelessness. If Gilt had not had the firearm within the boy’s reach or had her child strapped in, perhaps this incident could have been avoided. Furthermore, whether or not a 4-year-old is old enough to understand how and when guns should be handled is up for debate, as it’s likely that the toddler didn’t know that shooting his mother like he shoots targets could hurt her or that the gun should only be used in emergencies.
No matter what ensued, this makes for a pretty dangerous case of either karma or simple irony coming into play in this family’s life since apparently her guns are to “protect my child[ren].” As one post on Gilt’s page states, “You don’t need a permission slip to exercise a right.” Perhaps this will serve as a reminder to the family that you should need a permission slip to determine that you will not be careless enough to allow your toddler to easily shoot you in the back.
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