Real gun mistaken for game controler

[genorion]

Mistaking a loaded gun for a video game controller, a 3-year-old in Tennessee accidentally shot and killed herself, officials said. Cheyenne Alexis McKeehan of Norene, Tenn., shot herself Sunday night after her stepfather left his loaded Smith & Wesson handgun out on a table, Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe said. Cheyenne's mother told police officers that the child was used to playing a shooting game with the Nintendo Wii video game console and likely confused the real gun with the realistic-looking black toy gun, the sheriff said. "The unfortunate thing is that this Nintendo game called Wii had what looks like a solid black, basically automatic-looking type mechanism that operates the game," he said. "Unfortunately, the stepdad also had a .380 caliber black Smith & Wesson. The child was used to playing the video game." Cheyenne's stepfather, Douglas Cronberger, 32, owned a semi-automatic pistol that he normally kept in a secure location, out of the reach of Cheyenne and the couple's 1-year-old child, Ashe said. But after taking it out to investigate a possible prowler, Cronberger left it on a table and forgot about it, officials said. Law Enforcement: If You're a Gun Owner, You Have to Be Responsible When Cheyenne fired the gun, Ashe said, her mother, Tina Ann Cronberger, 32, was within three feet of her child. Cheyenne was pronounced dead on arrival at a local hospital. "We're not looking at criminal intent," Ashe said, adding that no criminal charges have been filed. "There was a terrible lapse of judgment here." He said that in his years in law enforcement, this wasn't the first tragedy he'd seen involving children and guns, but Cheyenne was the youngest victim he had seen. "If you're a gun owner, you have to be responsible about how you store your weapon, especially if you have children," Ashe said. But he added that he hopes this incident causes others to be more careful with firearms in the home. "I believe that something positive will come out of this -- that another family won't go through the heartbreak of this family," he said. Ashe did not know the specific Wii game the child played or the manufacturer of the video game controller. Nintendo did not immediately provide a comment to ABCNews.com.A three-year-old Tennessee girl was killed Sunday night after she picked up a loaded handgun and shot herself. The girl's mother told investigators her daughter likely thought the gun was a controller for a Nintendo Wii. Michael Fahey, a reporter for the video game blog Kotaku, said lifelike gun controllers, like the one found by police at the Cronberger home, are very rare. "It's not one that's generally on sale," he said. "You can't generally find it on sale in the U.S. because no one wants to sell a realistic-looking gun controller to children." After searching online, Fahey said he came across a video game controller that he thinks could be the same one owned by the Cronbergers. Manufactured by the HAIHONGCHANG Electronics Company in China, the WiiAuto Pistol, he said, is available for sale on various Web sites, such as eBay. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABCNews.com. Fahey said he wasn't even aware of the video game controller until Tuesday. "It surprised me, really, to see a gun that realistic being used for [the Wii]," he said. Most toy guns marketed for kids' video games in the United States are brightly-colored or white, to distinguish them from real guns. But he said he didn't think there was a way for Nintendo to regulate what overseas third-party manufacturers create for the Wii console. Nintendo might not have even known the realistic-looking gun existed, he said. He also said he doubted there were many shooting video games meant for young children. Those that do target kids, such as Nerf N-Strike, try to design toy guns that don't resemble the real thing. Gun-control advocates say it's one more reminder of the dangers of guns in the home. "The fact that there are things like this Wii toy that look like guns, make it all the more important for the adults to keep the guns away from the children," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Keep it locked up, keep it secure, or don't have it at all." Though not all gun accidents end as tragically as Cheyenne's, he said this kind of incident happens "all too often." In the United States, he said, a gun in the home is 21 times more likely to injure a family member than protect the home from intruders. "It shows once again that guns are not toys," he said. "Guns should not be left around where a child could get to them."


http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/toddle ... d=10056190

[Stradawhovious]

What a tragedy. A completely avoidable, unacceptable tragedy.

[Holland&Holland]

So very sad. My thoughts are with the family and my prayers go out to Cheyenne...

[cobb]

Maybe a dumb question, but aren't the the Wii controllers suppose to be pointed at the television screen to make them work? So why would the child be pointing a controller at herself, if she knew how to use the game, I would have to assume she knew the controller had to be pointed at the screen or it wouldn't work.

So either a convenient excuse of mistaken identity to cover up for seriously bad judgment on the parents part. Or there is more to the story about a 3 year old pointing a gun at herself and pulling the trigger.

[EJSG19]

Maybe a dumb question, but aren't the the Wii controllers suppose to be pointed at the television screen to make them work? So why would the child be pointing a controller at herself, if she knew how to use the game, I would have to assume she knew the controller had to be pointed at the screen or it wouldn't work.

So either a convenient excuse of mistaken identity to cover up for seriously bad judgment on the parents part. Or there is more to the story about a 3 year old pointing a gun at herself and pulling the trigger.

I understand what you mean cobb. But I wonder this. What does a 3 year old kid do when a toy gun doesn't work with the video game? I envision the muzzle being turned so the kid can look right down the barrel, and then trying the trigger again. Who knows what a 3 year old was thinking?

But, be that as it may. I don't think the blame should be placed on Nintendo. They can't really control 3rd party companies that make controllers compatible with the Wii. nintendo makes anything gun related look obviously like a toy.

Nope, tragedy is on Dad on this one, sad as it is. A terrible thing to overlook for what could have only been seconds. Must be absolutely heart rending for the parents and family, and its hard enough to think about just reading about it.

[cobb]

I understand what you mean cobb. But I wonder this. What does a 3 year old kid do when a toy gun doesn't work with the video game? I envision the muzzle being turned so the kid can look right down the barrel, and then trying the trigger again. Who knows what a 3 year old was thinking?

OK, let's think about that. So are we thinking that the kid was pointing the gun at the screen, pulling the trigger and it didn't work, but the trigger did work when she pointed it at herself? Another thing, this girl was three years old, what reasoning would she use to look down the barrel, she knew that the IR beam, or in this case the bullet came out of that end?

I was not there and do not know the facts except that an innocent young child is dead. But I do think it has nothing to do with a Nintendo game or mistaken identity of a real gun for a controller. I think this was a fabricated excuse to cover up what the real reason was, what ever it may have been, but not a handgun mistaken for a controller. I am one of those that also have a hard time believing the story about a gun going off when it was just being cleaned, more to the story, the cleaning was the excuse.

[mnmike59]

So either a convenient excuse of mistaken identity to cover up for seriously bad judgment on the parents part. Or there is more to the story about a 3 year old pointing a gun at herself and pulling the trigger.

My very first thought!!

[GregM]

If I were that dad, I don't know how I could live with myself.

[RobD]

As a father of an (almost)3 year old...

I'm a little curious how they could ever know the 3 year old thought it was a controller.... It seems to me like the Wii part is a cover up to try to make the step dad seem less negligent. I have a feeling the whole wii shooting game story (which I would never let my 3 year old play) came after.

This infuriates me not only that the life snuffed out by stupidity, but the fact that he thinks it's OK to try to shift some blame onto the child, and off of him.

Don't try to kid-proof your guns, gun proof your kids..

Next time any of you see Isabela, my daughter, ask her "What you do when you see a gun?" her reply will be "Stop, Don't Touch, Leave the area, Tell an adult!" Then she will ask me for a lollipop. (Her reward during our drills.. )

[EJSG19]

I understand what you mean cobb. But I wonder this. What does a 3 year old kid do when a toy gun doesn't work with the video game? I envision the muzzle being turned so the kid can look right down the barrel, and then trying the trigger again. Who knows what a 3 year old was thinking?

OK, let's think about that. So are we thinking that the kid was pointing the gun at the screen, pulling the trigger and it didn't work, but the trigger did work when she pointed it at herself? Another thing, this girl was three years old, what reasoning would she use to look down the barrel, she knew that the IR beam, or in this case the bullet came out of that end?

I was not there and do not know the facts except that an innocent young child is dead. But I do think it has nothing to do with a Nintendo game or mistaken identity of a real gun for a controller. I think this was a fabricated excuse to cover up what the real reason was, what ever it may have been, but not a handgun mistaken for a controller. I am one of those that also have a hard time believing the story about a gun going off when it was just being cleaned, more to the story, the cleaning was the excuse.

Very well could be Cobb. Beats the heck out of me what really happened either. Just thinking at it from a different angle for the sake of discussion. You're right though, there should be holes in the Television before there were holes in the child. No kid picks up a controller and "pretend shoots themselves" before they start their game (well, at least thats what a person would think. I've found 3 year olds to be somewhat unpredictable.)

Makes a guy really wonder though. If Dad was irresponsible enough to leave the gun on the table (or actually, more with your line of thinking, if that is the best story Dad can come up with), then you wonder what could have actually happened.

Accidental or not, I still see only one place where the blame can fall.