Fort Lauderdale Injury Lawyer Blog

Negligent gun shootings are on the rise in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Negligent shootings involve the unintentional discharge of a firearm. These typically occur when a loaded gun is not adequately secured and children or adults unfamiliar with a firearm get their hands on the gun which fires. The overwhelming majority of these incidents are easily preventable.

Since last year, nearly a dozen shootings have occurred resulting in serious injury or death which marks a dramatic increase over past years.

One of the most tragic stories involves a Deerfield Beach father who left his loaded gun in his pickup truck where his 10-year-old son discovered it and fatally shot his 11-year-old brother.

In the vast majority of negligent shootings, unfamiliarity with the firearms by the owner was the root cause. Many gun owners fail to understand that with semi-automatic weapons, even though the magazine which holds the bullets is removed from the gun, a bullet can still be in the chamber and can be fired if the trigger is pulled. In addition to simply a lack of knowledge regarding gun safety, every new hand gun sold today comes with a trigger lock which, if used, would have prevented all of the South Florida tragedies.

In each of these negligent shootings, the owner exhibited a lack of common sense. As long as the discharge of the firearm was not intentional, the victim of these shootings may recover from the gun's owner home insurance policy under a theory of negligence. If you or a loved one has been injured by the accidental discharge of a gun, you need to be aware of the possibility that you may be able to recover for your damages.