Gun Rights Mom Jamie Gilt (Whose Son Shot Her) Issues Statement

1. Not gilt-y? Wow that statement is a mess. Who among us hasn’t left a 45 under the driver’s seat for their 4 year old to find and shoot us? I hope she does better in the future:)

   • Wow, water walker. Did you think that up all by yourself or were you inspired by the morning cartoons?

   • Now she’ll be teaching gun safety to others.
     She should team up with this genius from the DEA to teach safety classes:
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ufT_6Kgy0

   • Well Water boy, if you carry a firearm on a regular basis. At some point, you will find yourself with either a negligent/accidental discharge. Hopefully, you and others around you will not be harmed. We all learn from our mistakes, and you should too.

     By the way, in case you are wondering what your mistake was. It’s thinking that some stupid thing involving a gun is not going to happen to you ever.

     • And that is how I learned never to bother with the safety on the Mosin-Nagant.

     • She was basically charged with a crime-like your writing. My 4 sons have never shot me by “mistake”. She also was charged with shoplifting 3 years ago. What I can’ t understand is why anyone would rush to her defense. She makes CC owners look like idiots-or guys named Matt…

       • Says the illiterate who has difficulty constructing a coherent sentence.

       • If it makes you feel any better, Mr. Walker, sir, I am none of the above criticizors. I come up with better names.

       • It’s spelled “criticizer”. FWIW I completely agree with your earlier comment about Ms. Gilt. Check out her Facebook page…

       • Wait, what?

       • It’s spelled “criticiser.” English, please.

       • Kevin in CO says: It’s spelled “criticiser.” English, please.

         I hope that is sarcasm. I am sure that Merriam Webster and dictionary.com completely disagree with you on that.

       • Kevin in CO says: It’s spelled “criticiser.” English, please.

         I hope that is sarcasm or that you are British (in which case I have to ask WHICH CO, you are referring to in your name?) . Merriam Webster completely disagree with you where American English is concerned.

         If you’re British, then we can discuss gray vs. grey, color vs. colour, center vs centre and that funky way “schedule” is pronounced “shed-ule”

     • Uh, no. This sounds like the kind of “fact” that is uttered by people trying to make their negligence seem normal. Not everyone who carries a gun manages to screw up enough to have a N\D.

2. Good for her. You live, you learn. I think a good general rule would be that off the body carry should never be used anywhere that a third party (like your child) could get access to the gun. That includes purse guns and the like.

   Just carry on the body, and store the gun in a safe in the trunk if you need to enter a gun free zone like the post office or whatever.

3. She’s trying to justify it too much. I would rather have seen a much more succinct ” I was completely careless and negligent by not maintaining positive control over my handgun at all times, which led to the incident taking place. Please learn from my mistake.

   • I don’t mind her pointing out factual errors in the criticisms, like where the gun was located (not on the seat) and it having a manual safety.

     Doesn’t this part,

     “I have chosen to take this very negative and scary experience and make something positive out of it. I have gone through a lot of training since the accident, and am nowhere near finished.”

     sort of have her saying what you say she SHOULD be saying?

     • Nope, not good enough on her part.

       She cops to the mistake of putting the gun under the seat, but then distances herself from the outcome by saying it led to the shooting. There’s linkage, but at a remove. She’s trying to imply that this was unforeseeable. Now, perhaps this exact scenario didn’t cross her mind, but it didn’t have to. Placing a loaded firearm freeky under a seat is inherently dangerous, and all the more so with a curious and mobile child in the car. Predicting this exact scenario isn’t required, when it’s abundantly clear that there’s an unjustified, elevated risk that something bad will happen. She’s using the specificity of the actual event to lighten culpability for the general danger she created.

       Second, she’s subtly blaming the alleged insufficiency of her prior training for her negligence. It’s great that she’s getting extra training, as it may enhance her commitment to safety. However, her negligence was at such a rudimentary level that I can’t see any specific skill taught in a safety course addressing it. Common sense can’t be taught.

       It’s like taking defensive driving, which is great, but I don’t see that in itself preventing you from leaving a baby alone in a car with the windows rolled up.

       • I agree she has a problem with ‘connecting the dots’, so to speak, and avoidance of outcomes.

         She has a history of that kind of mindset. In my opinion, her rational mind isn’t firing on all cylinders.

         Case in point: In 2013 she was convicted of shoplifting nearly $500 worth of clothes. A 28 year-old grown-ass woman and mother pulling crap like what a 12 year old would do doesn’t demonstrate mental balance in my book:

         http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3487308/Pro-gun-mom-shot-four-year-old-son-STOLE-500-children-s-clothes-using-boy-s-stroller-Florida-store.html

     • She should remove the extra fluff, and what really grinds my gears is when she says that lots of people leave guns under seats…that’s like saying oh it’s ok I have my finger on the trigger, lots of people do it.

       • She was not negligent. She was extremely careless. She had no intent what so ever. Very sad story, glad everyone involved will live and continue to learn.

       • @NorincoJay: “She was not negligent. She was extremely careless. She had no intent what so ever.”

         I don’t think “negligent” means what you think it means.

       • Uh, yes, actually she WAS negligent, Jay. Per Webster’s Dictionary:

         negligent (neɡləjənt)
         adjective

         1. failing to take proper care in doing something.

         What she did may not rise to the level of criminal negligence, but she absolutely did fail to follow the most basic of safe storage principles.

       • I think @NorincoJay was making a subtle (perhaps, too subtle) nod to FBI Director James Comey’s statement that Hillary wasn’t “negligent” in her handling of classified documents, but was merely “extremely careless”… Glossing over the fact that both terms are practically synonymous.

     • JR, off topic, were you at Trump’s speech? My favorite so far. This guy might actually pull this off.

       • Don’t mistake stump speech performance and attendance with expected results in November.

         At this time in 2012, Obama’s stump speeches had VERY low attendance. I was feeling pretty good, thinking that voter enthusiasm was low and that would translate to a better result for Romney.

         Eh, not so much.

         Trump is closing the gap (*again*) with the HildaBeast. In the unlikely event he doesn’t cram his foot in his mouth again, he has a *chance* to win this thing.

         What *has* to happen is he needs to b!tch-slap her in the debates.

         What I *hope* happens is WikiLeaks comes through. If it’s true Putin was behind it, it may well happen. And it won’t be for love of Trump. Putin is convinced he can roll Trump and finish what he started in the Baltic states and Black Sea…

       • It’s dangerous that he needs two “redemption moments,” one for conservatives, and one for moderates which will have to come in October when the Clinton machine is in full attack mode. But yeah, the most recent speeches have been great. It seems Priebus and Ryan are finally teaching him how to campaign.

       • Nope; wasn’t there. Been pulled three ways to Sunday lately on just keeping up with stuff.

         Glad to hear he’s continuing to gain traction. I have seen recently some of the alt-right guys ‘encouraging’ him to get the word out himself and completely bypass the MSM. I think that’s sound advice.

         MSM has lost control of the political narrative. Their grasp of the gun control narrative is just as tenuous. They are getting might crazy in the death throes of their monopoly on information. Some days it’s funny; others a bit disturbing.

       • I’d rather our second amendment be supported by our POTUS and half of Ukraine fall to Russia than the inverse. Not that I would want any more of Ukraine to fall to Russia, but if I have to choose between those two outcomes…

   • +1

4. She blames everybody but herself. I suspect her primary hobby is posting selfies. And analyzing her face in the mirror. And getting her hair done. And her nails.

   • Boy you sure have been trolling this site hard lately.

     Who exactly did she blame besides herself? I did not see her blaming anyone else. She said she screwed up and has a lot to learn yet.

     She also pointed out some factual errors in the criticisms which is proper. In order for both her and others to learn from this incident, the proper factual accounting of what actually happened has to be made first.

5. Why make a statement at all? Let alone one that paints many gun owners as morons (stick a gun under the seat? Sure!) and acts as an advertisement for her wholly ironic future career as a soon to fail instructor.

   Folks (listening Mr. Trump?) would be much better off if they just shut up once in a while.

   • “Folks (listening Mr. Trump?) would be much better off if they just shut up once in a while.”

     Disagree 100%.

     Trump is most effective when he’s going after the Left and Cuck-Right with both verbal barrels.

     Expose the charlatans for for what they are.

     • He’s also pretty effective at going after himself by screeching out completely contradictory statements within short periods of time.

   • Because in real life people don’t cease to exist after an ND.

     There needs to be positive examples of people who screwed up, learned from it, and took concrete steps to keep it from ever happening again.

     • It would be a negligent discharge if she pulled the trigger. When her four-year-old pulls it, the event slides into a different legal category in FL, allowing a loaded gun to fall into the control of a minor, a misdemeanor.

   • She made a statement so the high and mighty on this and other sites can get their fix of self-righteousness in by dissecting her words.

6. Off body carry has its risks and they were weighed wholly inadequately in this case. Carry a gun under the seat? Possibly. Carry a gun under the seat when you’re not certain of custody of that firearm? Absolutely not. an uncontrolled gun and a 4YO are a really crappy mix.

   My 4YO can’t even control a hose without spraying me half the time. There is absolutely no way in hell I would want him near a gun without extremely close supervision, and almost certainly not with ammo.

   I am hoping that it did not take a series of classes to realize the flaws in carrying this way.

   • Unfortunately for Jamie (or I should say her child) classes still can’t teach common sense…

     “I realize that many of the classes offered are seriously lacking and I plan to do my best to improve that. I will be teaching classes as soon as I am ready,”

     Sorry Jamie but there are already literally tons of NRA approved classes out there that teach gun safety from competent instructors. But if I ever wanna learn the art facebook gun selfies or self promotion I’ll be sure to look you up…

     • No kidding I would think virtually any class would say that one of the first rules of having a gun is maintain control of it.

7. I would be more supportive of her if she simply told her critics to go fvkc themselves.

   • +1. This lady screwed up but she got _shot_ for her mistake. No need to pile on.

     • Exactly right Eric. Half the clowns on this site can’t find their own arse even if they used both hands. No one here has ever made a mistake before apparently, so they need to jump all over this women; how manly of them.

       • None of my 4 sons ever shot me-or had the opportunity. Gilt put herself in the public eye to be some kind of media star. The only clown I see is a troll calling itself Paul…

       • You sir really are a sanctimonious hump. She made a mistake, paid the price so give her a break. You don’t have to be a prick EVERY day.

   • It would simply be icing on the cupcake if she told critics to “go Fvck yourself.”

     She had no job and no savings, but did have a gun, a car, and a child. She required surgery at the public expense, and then a public defender to arrange her pre-trial intervention (diversion).

     She admits by direct implication that she was negligent, for she admonishes us to accept that her son “is also 4 years old and perfectly capable of unbuckling himself. Anyone that has ever had a child this age should realize that.” So she must have realized that, and realized that she’d laid down her pistol on a surface the boy could easily reach..”as anyone that has ever had a child this age should realize.”

     Apparently we readers are free to criticize a pro-carry activist who causes a public embarrassment to gun owners….unless it’s a she and she’s not ugly. She definitely qualifies as an IGOTD.

     • ropingdown,

       Can you please tell me where you are getting your information about my bank accounts, my lack of insurance, lack of a job, and inability to pay for a lawyer?

       Everything outside of my “not having a job” is untrue. I am fortunate enough to be able to stay home and raise my children.

       Although, if there is some validity to this somewhere, I must have a pretty big refund coming soon!

8. Thanks for the update. And she knows how a bullet feels.

9. I commend her for telling us what happened. I hopes she fully recovers and wish her well. Although under the seat is a poor choice for a place to stick a gun, I am unwilling to beat her up over it as she clearly acknowledges that. She made a poor choice and learned a hard lesson from it, but it is not like she held up a stop and rob folks, cut her some slack!

10. She made a mistake and almost paid with her life. Hopefully, she’ll follow through on her statements to enable others to learn from her mistake.

    Heaping on the criticism makes you look like an holier-than-thou @sshole.

    • Quite right Ed; quite right.

    • I also agree. Some of the comments people have made about her statement sound like the horrible gun store salesman that knows everything, and is a Tier 1000 operator operating operationally.

    • I must be an @sshole because this woman is an idiot. She endangered herself and her 4 year old by not following any safe gun handling rules. Just because someone else is pro-2A doesnt mean I have to support them when they make us all look like morons.

      • Well, I think you are capable of looking like a moron all by yourself.

11. Springfield XD Mod 2 most certainly has a safety, a grip safety. Your kid intentionally shot you while properly having control over the weapon.

    Congrats!

    *edit* this also destroys the myth grip safeties are unsafe and will malfunction. If a 4 year old can do it, a Glock fanboy can manage…..

    • I’ll stick with the Glock. It makes my Glocks feel sooooo Glock. (I am an actual fan boy) I also carry a FsN.

    • Great Robert, you delete my post but leave this azzholes post up? This site is really going downhill. Far too many
      know it all, Monday morning quarterback, 4 star clowns with nothing useful to impart like Ryan and water walker.

      • Hey Paul when you troll several people you get deleted. The owner of this site did not paint Ms. Gilt in a favorable light-today or in the past. I guess you attacked me because I was 1st in. Deal with it and man up-or try Facebook.

        • You forgot the bit about none of your 4 sons shooting you in this post. I’m just guessing it was an oversight…stay classy.

        • This isn’t me. But he’s funny.

        • Unlike a certain maniac-stay stupid.

12. I appreciate what this woman had to say.
    She screwed up, she is dealing with it.
    That is more than we get from the anti gun people.
    P.S. Get a holster.

13. She made a mistake and got shot….. however would rather have gun in car than be a hopeless victim sure on body is best but the gun you have is better than none

14. Was it in a holster? Because damn, putting a no safety 1911 under your seat is stupid enough.

    • Sean, try actually reading the post; it wasn’t a “no safety 1911”.

15. I did make a mistake by placing a handgun under the front seat of my vehicle, and that mistake lead to a horrible accident. However, this is not something that is rare.

    That is possibly the worst attempt at minimization since “Let’s not bicker and argue about who killed who!”

16. Wow, the safety nazis are out in force. Yes, she made a mistake. Yes, it was preventable. Yes, she paid dearly. Guess what, TTAG readers, you aren’t perfect either. Maybe you’ve never made a mistake with a firearm, but you’ve made a mistake with a knife, a car, etc. I left out a Taser which my father in law fired into the carpet. He’s a gun owner and should have been fully aware that it was loaded. The slide safety was on, but he disengaged it. Some of our cops shot Taser cartridges into the ceiling. Some of them have crashed cars. Thankfully none of them have ever had a negligent discharge.

    So what do I do? I emphasize training and safety. I set a positive example. I own my patrol car crash. I investigate and write up at-fault crashes and negligent discharges, just like I got written up for my crash. If there is a negligent discharge of a firearm I investigate that. Consequences start at unpaid suspension and go to termination plus prison time. Life still exists after a mistake. Even a serious one. Someone who makes a mistake is still a human being. This lady is still a gun advocate and I don’t vilify gun rights advocates – I have enough enemies on the other side. Perfection is a lofty goal but it is not attainable by human beings.

    • Two people owning up to mistakes in vastly different ways are not equivalent just because they both own firearms. Your method appears respectable, her’s is a pathetic excuse. She will not get any internet support from me, just because we both happen to own firearms.

17. I don’t think she even made much of a mistake. Probably some kind of better retention system.

    She didn’t do anything any worse than all of us have done many times.

    If I got caught in all the stupid things I did when younger, I’d not be alive now. And since I am obviously smarter than you, you would not be reading this either.

18. How many of you guys had the intelligence and experience at 25 that you have now. Live and learn . Some people make some BIG mistakes, some are lucky and get through life without any bad things happening to them. I say cut her some slack .

19. Yet another blog post with cringe-worthy ads. Get rid of the Gene Simmons tongue pics an Xena ads TTAG

    • Ad Block Plus + Ghostery. Getting them takes all of a minute and fixes your problems.

20. Personally I don’t see why this is even a story. She did something silly and won a silly prize. People make mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about guns, cars or power tools even a momentary lapse of attention or judgement can end in disaster. It happens every day but I don’t see people piling on the stupid people who crash their cars while texting.

    The only reason this was ever a story is because it involved a gun and can be used to paint guns and their owners in a bad light.

    • It is a story strych9 because Robert has decided to throw this women to the wolves and let all the holier than thou clowns on this site rip her apart for making a mistake. Frankly, I thought he (and this site) were above this sort of seemly discourse but I guess not.
      Instead of savaging her, we as a community, should be about trying to help her in any way we can. Maybe that’s just a thoughtful note, maybe more, and leave the character assassination to others.

21. Not going to go through and read all the comments, but I would like to say that the photo above is not me.

    • Ms. Gilt,

      Maybe send a good photo to thetruthaboutguns [at] gmail.com

      I can’t speak for the publisher, but maybe he’ll replace the photo.

22. In my youth I got ignint with a .25acp. Missed my right big toe by just a few inches. Fortunately I was outside and did no damage to my parents home.

    Had a cousin shoot himself in the leg with a .45 caliber Ruger Blackhawk. He survived and did a full career til retirement in the navy.

    I watched a peer kill himself on a motorcycle when we were 15. I had a cousin kill himself when he was 13 in a gasoline explosion and fire while working on his motorcycle.

    I could go on. And on. Getting old sucks.

    Everybody fucks up. Period. Full stop. Some of us are lucky enough to live thru it. Others aren’t.

    • What is it with you and FWW’s incessant need to provide the Internet with the inane details of your personal lives? Same person, perhaps?

      • I’ve never met or have any connection with jwm. Or anyone on this blog.California is not Illinois. You need to quit getting high in mommy’s basement-your deranged posts are tedious…

      • Every comment you make reveals a lot about yourself, mono man. None of it is good. You’re a small hate filled man that is now obsessed with me and fww because I called you out and apparently, in your eyes, fww’s sin is having a bi racial marriage.

        Since you are too cowardly to reveal what name our clash occurred under and since you have his low class style I have to assume, until proven otherwise, that you are lower case matt, the proud racist.

        • Didn’t you mention something about Hispanic stepdaughters too jwm? Personally I think it’s the old-timey banter we do…lol. Boomers rule-young boys drool!

23. Some kid needs to watch more NRA safety videos.

24. I’m glad she’s okay. I hope this _will_ turn into something positive for anyone who hears about it. Sadly many will pass up a chance to glean some wisdom.

25. all the so called experts find that its Easy to be negative, shoulda, woulda, coulda! until Butt heads develop ESP to foretell future accidents they continue to have diarrhea of the mouth, and constipation of the Brain, because they think they know more than or think they are better than someone, they get a ego boost by spouting what ever ego S**t they can dream up just to prove a Moronic point and to hear themselves talk!
    Give the Lady a break this is a Negative story with a Positive ending!
    No One Died!!

26. If she didn’t look the way she did to rise her star as a social media darling, half you white knights wouldn’t defend her negligence. We really don’t need people like this exposing our culture, but have a strange habit of clinging to morons. Well, I guess Trump’s candidacy explains a lot now.

27. Not sure if that handgun has a grip safety?
    No manual safety? No round in the chamber for me. My choice.

28. A tough lesson for sure, but one that all of us can learn from. Even those like myself who live alone with pets, I recently recognized a possible avenue for a potential tragedy. I have about a 5 year old girl and 4 year old boy who live across the street. They just recently discovered that my dogs love kids. Now they are running around in front of my house spraying the dogs with the hose and whatever kids and dogs do. The dogs don’t care, everything is good with them.
    However, in my keeping with either home carry or having my weapon close, I realized that I leave it nearby in the garage in plain site when I’m in front. It’s in my van which is in the garage. All they would have to do is jump in the open tailgate and there it is. I doubt the 4 year old could pull the trigger in double action on a P229, but nevertheless, now that there are little ones around….again, I can NOT allow myself to be careless by leaving a loaded firearm where a child could access it. For those who have had kids, you know it only takes seconds. As a matter of fact, that same house across the street with the kids used to be a rental and that house had a family where one of the kids got dads handgun and shot himself. Apparently it wasn’t serious, but I remember there were cops everywhere that day. There’s little margin for error when it comes to guns and kids. It only takes seconds.

29. I don’t like her. You either control your machine or you don’t, she didn’t. This one-cheeked “apology” just shows she thinks she still thinks she’s the center of the universe and did nothing wrong. She can’t take the negative messages to heart? People don’t know what happened? Ha, she mustn’t give a rat’s butt about normal, safe gun handling then, because that is what she’s being criticized over. You’ve got to know what she had for lunch, and the phase of the moon, and what her favorite color is before you can criticize, maybe. Yeah right.

30. I can not remember a time when my two kids ever unbuckled their car seats. They rode in them well past the age of four, as State law required. Sure, they were capable of doing so, but the car was always stopped, the gear placed in Park, probably turned off the engine, and we removed them from their car seats. It was just habit.

    Knowing my son, I have visions of him waving his now retrieved toy at a cop car, while standing in the floorboard, as I am driving sixty miles an hour, or more, on the Interstate.

31. No one going to mention empty chamber carry?
    I have kids in my house and I have taught them to never pick up a gun don’t let anyone else handle a gun and call an adult if you find one.
    I think that empty chamber “Israeli style” carry adds one more layer of safety as the gun cannot discharge unless you rack the slide first.
    The recent case of Carolanne Miracle in Arizona shows that you can respond fast enough with empty chamber even when you are ambushed
    The nattion of Israel is entirely armed and they use empty chamber carry and plenty of armed civilians have stopped terrorist attacks

    • My thoughts exactly. A 4 yo kid MIGHT be able to cycle the slide, but leaving the chamber empty makes it that much tougher. Good enough for the IDF, good enough for me. After all, all the super fast quick draw Condition 1 gunfighters dont face the same threats IDF security forces face on a daily basis, and Condition 3 is good enough for them. If this MILF thought it was OK for a Condition 1 Spriingfield XD rattling around under her seat with kids in the car, she was asking for trouble.

    • You won’t get any traction with the militant tacticool crowd on TTAG Docduracoat.They’ll tell you you’re doing it all wrong if you don’t have one in the chamber ready to go. Meanwhile in most of the rest of the world they ARE using so-called Israeli carry. I’m shocked you aren’t attacked more…

32. Real smart. Condition 1 gun rolling around under the seat with kids in the car. Genius. The post above this one is right on the money. Conditon 3 good enough for IDF, good enough for moms with kids.

    • Agree.

33. People make mistakes. We are all fallible. So that is that. The community service, medical bills, and the sobering thought that her or her child could have been killed will teach her to be safer and more aware of the dangers and responsibilities involved in handling firearms. With that being said, for the rest of us, “those without sin cast the first stone”. Whether you believe in God or not, doesn’t matter. It’s still a good lesson to be learned.

34. Listen, guys. I have a compromise. I’ll volunteer to take one for the team, and I’ll put another baby in this beautiful lady. All we’ll have to do is wait nine months and four years, and we’ll see if she learned her lesson or not. If the next four year-old puts a bullet in her, then you guys can resume piling on. Problem solved 🙂

35. One of the holster manufacturers should come up with some kind of retention holster for mounting underseat.

36. Stupid is as stupid does. Why is her gun even loaded, to begin with? The ammo could be kept in the glove box, making it more difficult for someone to get shot the way she was by her child. Her excuses for not heeding some of the negative advice to her demonstrates that the penalty of community service is not sufficient. She clearly has not reflected on her behavior as being dangerous. I believe parents who enable a child to gain access to a loaded weapon should be charged with Child Abuse.

Comments are closed.