Florida teen allegedly shoots, kills sister after argument over Christmas gifts

A 14-year-old boy allegedly fatally shot his older sister in Florida after a family argument over Christmas presents, officials said Tuesday.

The teen had been out shopping on Christmas Eve with Abrielle Baldwin, his 23-year-old sister, as well as his mother, 15-year-old brother and sister’s children, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said during a news conference.

The teenage brothers got into an argument about who was getting more Christmas presents.

“They had this family spat about who was getting what and what money was being spent on who, and they were having this big thing going on in this store,” Gualtieri said.

IHeartBadCode,
IHeartBadCode avatar

The bullet traveled through her left arm and into her chest, popping both of her lungs. She suffered internal bleeding and was unable to breathe

That's the nice way of saying she drowned in her own blood.

"These young kids — 14, 15 years old — routinely carry firearms and this is what happens when you got young delinquents that carry guns," Gualtieri said. "They get upset, they don't know how to handle stuff, and they end up shooting each other."

Just FYI, this is not limited to children. There's plenty of adults who have zero idea on how to handle stress without flashing a piece. I've seen about six different people use that as a method of indicating I'm getting over in your lane on my way into work pre-pandemic.

SeaJ,

Jesus. Where the fuck do you live that people do that?

GBU_28,

Good God what city do you live in?

Hackerman_uwu,

I’m pretty gullible and I believe a lot of stuff. So I’m asking this sincerely.

Are you saying that in America people are tapping their widow with a Glock and giving you the stink eye to get into your lane? Like, instead of indicating and then waiting for a safe gap?

ArcaneSlime,

That does seem to be what he is lying about, yes.

chitak166,

I’ve never seen someone flash a gun in my almost 30 years in the US.

Jakeroxs,

I live in Texas and see people strapped pretty often, but they usually aren’t like waving it around or anything.

BreakDecks,

America is pretty big, and that isn’t something that happens where I live (Seattle)

But there are parts of this country where a surprisingly large percentage of people are completely fucking insane and peacock with weapons in reckless ways. It also isn’t unusual for children to have guns, even if it isn’t legal.

There’s a high school in rural Colorado that has given up on doing anything about guns in their high school because something like 30% of students are armed on any given day.

I grew up in Tennessee, and students were allowed to store guns in their cars parked in the high school parking lot.

I have met many people who open-carry and then openly emphasize it to others because they want to be intimidating. It’s a part of their identity, and they will let you know in inappropriate ways.

This country is weird. I’m happy to live in a less violent part of it.

evatronic,

Reno 911! did a bit on this topic. Metal detector at school, manned by the sherriffs. They’d let you surrender your piece and keep it until you left. They had a valet wall behind them and like, claim tags and shit.

I apologize for the tiktok link: www.tiktok.com/…/7216351539382979886

SupraMario,

Bro…what??? CHAZ was literally in Seattle…

…m.wikipedia.org/…/Capitol_Hill_Occupied_Protest

Tn has two areas that have a serious gang problem. From those two areas comes like 85% of its crime. Everyone carries there and it’s not the wild West like you’re trying to make it out to be.

BreakDecks, (edited )

Found the Fox News watcher.

Protip: The CHOP/CHAZ was a 3-week protest that closed a single neighborhood intersection, and ended over 3 years ago. The only people who think that it is an example of how dangerous Seattle is are people who watch right-wing news and have never set foot in Seattle…

Fox News literally reported on it as if it were another country. They referred to it as if it as the “US/CHAZ border”, and overreported about it like it was the story of the century. Spoiler: they just hate progressive cities like Seattle, and were willing to say anything that would arouse their boomer viewership.

It was basically an unauthorized block party created to stimulate an extended 2020 BLM protest.

Yes, there was some violence, but at such a small scale it had zero effect on the city’s already low violent crime rate.

But keep going about how racial justice protests make you feel unsafe…

prole,

Lol fucking clown. Never even been to a city have you

admiralteal,

Strict liability for whoever was the legal owner of the gun(s), I say.

Whoever let these children get their hands on the firearm is absolutely a murderer. Even if it someone who let their gun get stolen from their car. Definitely if it was a family member or friend.

rottingleaf,

Oh, I remember that event with an actor killing a camera operator with a prop gun (jokingly pointing it at her) or something.

The person responsible for props was a complete dumb baboon and guilty of murder, yes.

However, I was shocked by the fact that so many people think that pointing a real gun, even if it’s a prop, at somebody without checking that it’s not loaded is normal and thus that actor was innocent. They were defending that action as if they themselves would really have taken a gun and squeezed the trigger while pointing at someone without checking.

So maybe it’s about responsibility and education, not ownership of guns.

Because, say, Moldova (off the top of my mind), hardly a rich country or even with a healthy society, has gun laws more liberal than in USA, and doesn’t have school shootings and such events.

Switzerland and Austria have very liberal gun laws, again possibly more so than in USA, and don’t have such a problem.

HerbalGamer,
@HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works avatar

and Austria have very liberal gun laws, again possibly more so than in USA,

Austria has relatively relaxed gun laws for Europe. but it’s still fairly strict compared to the USA.

rottingleaf,

Oh, OK, OK. I’ve literally had something in my memory and did only quick reading on laws in those 2 countries before writing that comment, and evaluated strictness on my own.

hpca01,

Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t those places where you’re required to take some kind of classes to be able to qualify to own a gun? Isn’t it also pretty easy for anyone from the police to be able to take them from you within reason if they find you to be violating some laws?

rottingleaf,

Yeah. If “taking some kind of classes” is not obligatory in the US, then we have the main reason for all the accidental shootings and kids takings their parents’ guns right here.

Stumblinbear,
@Stumblinbear@pawb.social avatar

Depends on the state if it’s required. Not required in Kansas, but required in Minnesota as an example

admiralteal,

Can't speak for Moldova or Austria, but I would not call Switzerland's gun laws liberal.

They are VERY strict. Gun ownership rates are high, but there are tons of restrictions and licensing requirements on ownership and sale of guns there. The country is proof that having a strong regulatory structure does not necessarily prevent gun ownership and should absolutely be considered a model for where the US regulator environment should be moving (universal registration including 2nd hand sales, full license checks for all purchases including ammo, effective bans on large categories of weapons, mandatory training, and the like).

People who love "gun rights" always cite Switzerland without even doing the most basic Wikipedia-level research on it.

rottingleaf,

People who love “gun rights” always cite Switzerland without even doing the most basic Wikipedia-level research on it.

People winning arguments in their heads shouldn’t come to real ones.

KISSmyOS,

You can’t put the responsibility on the actor who never chose to own a gun, so they have no reason to educate themselves about gun safety.
All responsibility lies with their employer (I guess that’s the producer and/or director), who made them handle a gun as part of their job and should have given them the required training, as well as the prop guy whose job it was to check the gun.

rottingleaf,

on the actor who never chose to own a gun, so they have no reason to educate themselves about gun safety.

He chose to take it, point it at a person and squeeze the trigger, so yes he had that reason and yes I can.

Jokingly, I should add, he wasn’t instructed by anyone to take that gun and wave it around.

The only people not having a reason to educate themselves about gun safety are people who don’t touch guns.

All responsibility lies with their employer (I guess that’s the producer and/or director), who made them handle a gun as part of their job and should have given them the required training,

Yeah, they probably managed to make only the prop guy responsible too, just like that actor. But I don’t remember the details.

as well as the prop guy whose job it was to check the gun.

… and about that person I’ve already said what I wanted.

chitak166,

Even if it someone who let their gun get stolen from their car.

No.

CileTheSane,
@CileTheSane@lemmy.ca avatar

If only there was a good sibling with a gun to stop him…

pineapplelover,

The 23 year old sister should’ve had a gun also, to protect herself from 14 year old boys /s

reddit_sucks, (edited )

His brother was charged with attempted first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. Both teens have prior arrests for car burglaries.

$100 says he’s black

Hadriscus,

This would never have happened if the sister had had a gun of her own : she would have been able to retaliate, and kill her brother before he could kill her, and we would have gotten a happy ending. I just don’t understand, it seems so simple to me : just issue a gun to every child over the age of 5 (months)! There, done !

lntl,

probably need more guns?

FlavoredButtHair,
@FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world avatar

That’s it no more guns… For minors that is.

OsrsNeedsF2P,

Are you suggesting to take away my God given second amendment right?

FlavoredButtHair,
@FlavoredButtHair@lemmy.world avatar

For minors yes. Unless they take safety classes for at least 3yrs.

Andrenikous,

Totally reasonable to require children to be at least 3 before they can own a gun. /s

draedron,

Only whites should have guns as the Mulford Act intended

Draedron,

Its not god given and yes it should be taken away. Constitutions can be changed or what do you think amendment means?

Deiv,

I’m like 97% sure OP was being sarcastic

TechyDad,
@TechyDad@lemmy.world avatar

Republicans: “No! In fact, we’ll make sure that it’s legal for minors to carry weapons without any adult supervision!!!”

nutsack,

why is this news on here we don’t need to hear about this shit

jordanlund,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Well, it is recent US news… where else would it go?

I had to remove it from World News because it’s a US story.

nutsack,

the garbage can because it’s poison

Kiwi_Girl,
@Kiwi_Girl@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

I’m confused how it’s poison.

Can you please elaborate?

Alsephina,

Sir this is the news community

blind3rdeye,

[The 14-year-old boy has] been charged with first-degree murder, child abuse and being a delinquent in possession of a firearm, police said. “These young kids — 14, 15 years old — routinely carry firearms…”

This is where USA culture feels alien to me. It is well known that children at that age tend to have poor emotional regulation, and underdeveloped physical and mental skills. The adults have duty of care, and they’ve allowed the child to wield a gun and kill someone. I would think that surely the parents have been criminally negligent in this case. But no, in the USA it’s apparently totally normal for children to carry around lethal weapons as though they were a toy. The outcome is sad, but unsurprising.

Cold_Brew_Enema,

Fuck the United States. Only place in the world this fucking shit happens regularly , because a bunch of small dick Republicans won’t give up their guns.

phoenixz,

Republicans were so lucky to find the gun issue

They don’t give a shit about guns. But at long as they can keep their voters riled up about it, they won’t have the time to think about real issues like why they’re so poor, why they will go bankrupt if they get really sick, etc etc etc.

Guns is like religion, it’s just another method of control where the target doesn’t even know they’re being controlled

Hadriscus,

You need to be upvoted to the skies

ExLisper,

Find? More like manufacture.

AutistoMephisto, (edited )
@AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world avatar

Exactly. And they keep sowing this myth that the guns will be taken away at any point in time, but “you should keep them in case we become tyrannical!” And the definition of what is and isn’t tyranny is always subject to change, but usually if it’s tyranny against people the base doesn’t like, then it’s not tyranny.

prole,

Yeah the same people are turning around and fully supporting a presidential candidate who is openly saying he will be a dictator when elected.

Just an unbelievable level of stupid.

Schadrach,

Republicans were so lucky to find the gun issue

The best part is that Dems could take it away from them at any time by just deciding not to fight them on that one with little lost in the process.

crimroy,

Just out of curiosity, what does that mean?

Schadrach,

That means that gun control as an issue only exists because Dems allow it to exist.

It’s the easiest and largest impact wedge issue for the GOP because gun control is basically a no go so they have to do very little to actually prevent it while it garners them a comparatively large number of wedge issue voters.

Dems would lose relatively little by just dropping the issue almost entirely while denying a powerful wedge issue to the GOP.

Illuminostro,

They care about the bribes from gun manufacturers.

kameecoding,

Careful there, lemmy has a bunch of gun nut weirdos

JustZ,

Who gives a shit what they think.

Hadriscus,

exactly 8, it seems

reddit_sucks,

WAAAAAAAAA IT’S ALL THE REPUBLICANS FAULT!!!

DEFINITELY NOT THE PARENTS DEFINITELY NOT THE VOTERS DEFINITELY NOT THE GUY WHO PULLED THE TRIGGER DEFINITELY NOT THE SYSTEM DEFINITELY NOT ME IT’S THE RIGHT!! THE RIGHT WIIIIIING

MotoAsh,

Fuck off with your beyond pathetic inability to think. Fuck off. We didn’t ask for dogma, we asked for someone with a brain. That’s not you, chief.

fosho,

in multiple separate comments you have demonstrated a total inability to think beyond half a layer of depth. you are out of your element and have a great deal to learn. I truly hope that one day you do.

jpreston2005,

sorry about the dick, bro

RampantParanoia2365,

So we’re just going to keep repeating this exact conversation every single time this happens. Because other countries don’t have systems, or people with fingers.

Mafflez,

Dude I lean center left…it’s not just Republicans that care about gun rights you dumbass. LOT of gun owners also are democrats. Stop trying to one side an issue. Thenissue isn’t guns it’s literally the owners and yea I’ll be damned if I give up my firearms cause you want me to. My guns stay locked up in my safe at all times. My kids know they aren’t toys and can seriously hurt someone. I keep the keys to that safe with me.

Secondly taking away legal and lawful gun owners guns will NOT stop people who don’t follow the law from obtaining guns and doing bad shit with them. Grow the fuck up.

Hackerman_uwu, (edited )

Go into any of the relationship subreddits today and for the next few days and you will see countless Americans melting down into various degrees of rage and bitterness over Xmas presents.

It’s like this very goddamn year.

Can anyone explain this part of the culture to me?

I’m not saying I hate all Americans or anything ridiculous like that, the cast majority of Americans I’ve met are good hearted people but when it comes to Xmas and in what I’m given understand is the modern vernacular: “y’all cray.”

Don’t any of your families still watch the Charlie Brown Christmas? Because you really should.

loki_d20,

Materialism is really big with a lot of people. My in-laws kids are spoiled rotten and only accept big brand name stuff because that’s all their parents give them for Christmas and Birthdays. Same people who can’t afford to pay their mortgage and are likely to lose the house in a few months.

I like present-less holidays. Better to focus on just being with people I find. Also helps if there’s a lot of good, homemade food.

BossDj,

Americans live in a state of constant stress that is satiated by material possessions and trying to impress or be better than others. These kids were just trying to get their dose of imbalanced brain chemicals

spider,

I like present-less holidays. Better to focus on just being with people I find.

presence > presents

NAK,

There are 335 million people in the United States.

One asshat shot someone.

I’m not defending guns, shitty culture, or shitty people, but this is clearly a case where this kid has some sort of mental disorder. Literally hundreds of millions of families watched Charlie Brown and went the entire holiday without murdering each other

Showroom7561,

There were 89 shootings in the united states on Christmas day. Source with incident reports for each one.

Hadriscus,

See, if it were 90 I could understand you being upset…, but it’s just 89! are we really going to make a scene about 89 totally avoidable deaths ?? when we could just enjoy Christmas with the children we might lose tomorrow ?

(thanks for the source)

ArcaneSlime,

89 is 0.00002670367% of 333,287,557.

zergtoshi,

Each one of the 89 shootings was one too many.

Any idea how many shootings were on Christmas day in Australia, Canada or Switzerland where a lot of people have guns too?

By the way, if you look at shootings in Australia before and after semi-automatic rifles got banned in 1996 you know how to improve the situation in the US.

ArcaneSlime,

By the way, if you look at shootings in Australia before and after semi-automatic rifles got banned in 1996 you know how to improve the situation in the US.

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but you can also shoot people with bolt actions, lever actions; and SA, DA, and S/DA revolvers.

SupraMario,

Someone in Prague just killed 15 people with a bolt action firearm…

We have an issue with our society, not our firearms.

Hadriscus,

Does it not seem reasonable to take away guns while we solve our society issues ?

reddit_sucks,

lol mate that was a psyop if you’re too stupid to understand that I don’t know what else to tell you. You probably just believe everything you read online.

otp,

No, you have an issue with your society and with firearms.

Treczoks,

If it was the only shooting that day, it would have been a peaceful one for a change. Hint: It wasn’t.

NAK,

Like I said, I’m not defending guns.

What I hate is people who attack where I live, with sweeping generalizations about how shitty a place it is. It isn’t. The United States is entirely neutral. There are good things about it and bad things about it. Every country has their issues, and reducing violent crimes to such a simplistic focus as “lol, guns bad, USA sucks” is catastrophically stupid.

One of the main ways I judge people is if they punch down. A good example of this is Trump’s feud with Greta Thunberg. At the time he was president of the United States. And she was a 16 year old autistic girl. Think about that. For a time the president of the United States, a person with literal tens of thousands of nuclear weapons at their disposal, decided that a 16 year old, foreign, autistic girl needed the focus of his ire. That’s punching down. And it’s classless.

So if you think the United States is shit, that’s fine. But if you live in a place that you think is so much better than it, you can say that in a way that’s constructive. There’s no need to attack somebody or some thing you think you’re better than

prole,

No it is not clearly a case where the kid has some sort of mental disorder. You know literally nothing about this person.

I would probably bet that this kid made a stupid split second choice in the heat of the moment about something that (partially likely due to raging teenage hormones) probably seemed very important at the time, and the guilt will haunt him until the end of his life (which, statistically speaking, just got much shorter on average).

This is exactly why guns are so dangerous. It gives people (in this case, a literal child without a fully developed brain) the capability to make a decision to end another life in a split second.

Dark_Arc,
@Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg avatar

You really think any sane rational FOURTEEN year old would just shoot their sister solely because of a Christmas gift?

I’m not saying 14 year olds have adult mental capacity and decision making … but by that age you KNOW what a gun goes and you KNOW you can’t take it back.

Either there’s more to the story or this kid definitely has some kind of mental disorder or mental distress that they needed to see a therapist about.

Maybe the more to the story is that he thought he could just scare her by pointing the gun at her or her thought it was empty … and it wasn’t/the gun went off. If that’s the case, then the parents really screwed up having a gun in the house, not teaching the kid anything about gun safety, and allowing the kid across to the gun (granted again by 14 you’re pretty smart … the average 14 year old could probably figure out the code or were the keys are kept on a gun safe because I know most people do not follow best practices with any passwords or keys).

And before you make any assumptions like you did with the other person, I’ve voted for Democrats in every election, donated some significant money to their campaigns, and I do not own a gun and do not have any restrictions that prevent me from owning a gun, I’ve just decided that for me … particularly with living alone and a (granted not recent) history of depression that included suicidal thoughts … they’re not a good thing to have around. I avoid alcohol for similar reasons.

Thoughts and prayers might be a meaningless response but a huge block of the population has said “we’re not giving up our guns” … come to think of it … just like a huge block of the population has said “we’re not giving up our alcohol” (as is their right at the polls).

There is a majority that would like to see some common sense gun reform and we should do that. However, I believe the right has a point about mental health and guns. What they don’t have is the willingness to fund mental health systems and instead they blame all the mental health issues on a degraded culture (🙄). We need to bring mental health back into the conversation with information from professionals. They also have a point about teaching kids about gun safety, if we’re going to keep guns, then it’s a public disservice to not teach kids (or at least the kids of gun owners) “this is what a gun is, don’t point it at anything you don’t want to kill” and “there’s a difference between pretend and reality, these are never for pretend” as a baseline.

MagicShel,

Go toxic places to read toxic things. I’ve never heard of this. But also I can’t imagine going to a relationship board and expecting to come away with anything but misanthropy regardless of time of year.

jordanlund,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Entirely too many people base their self worth on what other people think of them.

So “I didn’t get enough shinies” = “nobody really loves me” = “I’m a worthless human being”.

Alternately “I didn’t get enough shinies for my kids” = “I’m a bad parent” = “I’m a worthless human being.”

Then that gets reflected outwards, poorly. :(

Breaking that cycle of seeking approval from other people is one of the hardest things you can do. At our core, we all seek validation on some level or other.

sndmn,

This is Peak Florida.

YoBuckStopsHere,
@YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world avatar

A daily occurrence in Red States, unfortunately.

testfactor,

I mean, probably true, but misleading? You’re definitely way more likely to get shot in pretty much any major US city, almost all of which are blue.

Not making any value judgement of one vs another. Just saying that this particular issue is pretty ubiquitous. Definitely not just a “red state” thing.

loki_d20,

americanprogressaction.org/…/cities-in-blue-state…

AWistfulNihilist, (edited )

www.axios.com/…/america-gun-deaths-crime-south

It’s actually both a huge and growing issue in red states specifically. Plus the guns people are using in crimes in states with more restrictive gun laws are coming from the states with less restrictive gun laws.

Basically, the more people who have guns, the more likely those people are to use those guns. Go figure.

Those figures are per capita however. So while there are more gun deaths in California, you are significantly more likely to be killed in New Mexico to gun violence.

SupraMario,

Blue cities in red states…gangs in those cities … shocking…

FlashMobOfOne,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

Three years ago I had to stop my 17 year-old adopted sister from hitting our elderly mother over $30 of missing Amazon crap on Christmas day, then I called the sheriff on she and her baby daddy. Five cars came to mediate the situation.

Needless to say, I don’t go to family Christmases anymore.

Families suck.

chitak166,

Lol, what? I’d beat the shit out of her if she tried to lay a hand on me mom.

She’d learn real fucking quick about what it really means to beat on someone weaker than you.

FlashMobOfOne,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

It’s a nice thought but I’m pretty sure my beating the shit out of a 17 year-old girl wouldn’t have reflected well on me in front of five sheriff’s deputies.

GBU_28,

I hope you have the opportunity to build a family (via biology or social bond) that better lives up.

FlashMobOfOne,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

I learned to be happy on my own, which is the best thing ever if you ask me.

I don’t need other people to live a fulfilling life, and I hope I never feel like I need anyone but myself.

khannie,
@khannie@lemmy.world avatar

Sorry to hear that. That’s awful. If you have your own family in the future, that’s your chance to make sure nothing like that happens in it. We learn from the mistakes we experience.

I honestly feel like we get better with each generation from experiences like this.

FlashMobOfOne,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

I’ve read too many history books to think that things get better with our species over time, and my time is too valuable to me to waste on kids, but that’s just me.

I hope the choices you’ve made are fulfilling for you.

KISSmyOS,

Honestly, we peaked in the stone age.
Agriculture was a mistake.

khannie,
@khannie@lemmy.world avatar

Oh I’m certain our generation is kinder to our kids than those that came before us. History shows us a lot of cruelty to each other over the years but it also shows us a huge improvement over time, particularly in the last 60 odd years.

But thanks I appreciate where you’re coming from and for sure I’m a better dad than my dad was and for sure he was a better dad than his dad was.

Hopefully we’re getting there. :)

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