Child Shoots Gun In Ikea Store After Finding Firearm In Couch

A child found a handgun in a couch in an Ikea shop in Fishers, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis, on Monday and fired a shot with it.

According to authorities, an unidentified customer who had a permit to carry a concealed handgun, sat down on the couch to check it out and unknown to him, his gun dropped on the seat and got lodged in the space between the cushions. He did not realize his folly and continued to shop inside the store.

Later on, when a group of kids visited the shop, they discovered the weapon around 2 p.m. EDT and one of them proceeded to pull the trigger. No one was hurt in the incident but the store was closed for an hour as the police investigated the incident. The age of the child who fired the gun was not revealed.

The investigators took statements from the witnesses at the scene and will be passing them onto the local prosecutors. The prosecutor will then determine whether to press charges against the gun owner.

According to CBS4 Indy, IKEA issued the following the statement regarding the incident:

“We take this incident very seriously and we have offered the family of the child involved our sincerest apologies.

Safety and security of customers and co-workers is the top priority for Ikea. We have processes in place to ensure that the store is safe for customers and co-workers. For example, our store team has regular safety walks and audits which happen before, during and after opening hours.

In addition, Ikea has a no weapon policy in our locations to prevent exactly these types of situations. As soon as we were made aware of the situation, our co-workers took the action they were trained to do to ensure the safety of customers. We are cooperating with police as they investigate this incident."

Although there is a “no gun” sign at the entrance of Ikea store, the state of Indiana itself does not brand the violation of the law as “illegal.” This means it will be difficult for prosecutors to bring criminal charges against the gun owner in question.

Furthermore, gun expert and attorney Guy Relford said the fact that no one was injured in the incident will also work in the gun owner’s favor. What the owner can receive at the most is a criminal recklessness charge. However, even to make that charge stick, the police have to prove that the person was knowingly, intentionally, or recklessly committing the act, which in this case the gun owner was most likely not.

“Being a knucklehead is not a crime in Indiana, or in most places,” Relford said.

After the incident, Fishers Police Sgt. Tom Weger stressed that carrying a gun permit is not enough. Gun owners need to learn about responsible fire weapon ownership, he said.

“It’s important to remember that if your are going to carry a firearm on your person, that you make sure you’re under control of it at all times. It’s just part of gun ownership, responsible gun ownership,” he said.