Gun Owner To Blame For Toddler Shooting: Gun Rights Group

DEARBORN, MI — While a Wednesday shooting of two 3-year-old boys at a home-based child care in Dearborn by a toddler with a handgun was tragic, the fault lies with the gun owner, says a Michigan gun rights group.

“That was clearly gross negligence,” said attorney Steve Dylan of the Michigan Coalition For Responsible Gun Owners. “That was not responsible gun ownership.”

In the incident, one boy was shot in the shoulder and the other suffered facial injuries, police said. The youngsters remain hospitalized in serious but stable condition, according to Dearborn Police. The department's investigation is ongoing.

But gun advocate equates the incident to household incident, something that could have involved a child tampering with dangerous cleaning chemicals or matches.

“A gun is not a toy,” Dulan said. His Lansing-based group, which successfully advocated changes to Michigan’s concealed pistol law, boasts about 10,000 members statewide.

“There is no law that would’ve saved that child.”

Police have not said who owns the gun or the circumstances for how the child found and discharged it in the Harding Street home of Samantha and Tim Eubanks on Wednesday. The Eubanks, authorities said, were operating an unlicensed and unregistered child care center in their home. The Eubanks also are being investigated by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the state agency that oversees child care operations.

Guns are permitted in a licensed/registered child care home, said LARA spokesman Pardeep Toor. But firearms must be “unloaded and properly stored in a secure, safe, locked environment inaccessible to children,” per state law.

According to the Michigan Chapter of Moms Demands Action For Gun Sense in America, 85 people have been killed and 134 more people have been injured in unintentional shootings by someone 17 or younger in 2017.

“As adults, we have to do everything in our power to make sure no toddler or daycare ever experiences this kind of nightmare again,” Michigan Chapter Leader Emily Durbin said in a statement.

The national organization was started in 2012 in response to Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The group supports Second Amendment rights, but believes common-sense solutions can help decrease the “escalating epidemic of gun violence” that kills too many people each day.

“Storing guns responsibly – locked and unloaded, with ammunition stored separately – is a critical step that every gun owner can take to protect kids and adults alike from the life-threatening consequences of a curious toddler getting access to a gun,” said Durbin. “We’re thinking today of each of the families affected by this horrifying shooting.”

Dulan didn’t dispute the statistics cited by Durbin but said numbers are often presented in a “disingenuous” way. Dulan said the vast majority of shootings are committed by teenagers, not young children.

“These kinds of tragedies are exceedingly rare,” he added.

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