Hidden Gun Goes Off at Starbucks Raises Alarm
A gun went off Monday at a Wyoming Starbucks, after a 17-year-old girl dropped her purse.
The girl, whose name was withheld because she is a minor, was purchasing her coffee at 6:45 a.m., Monday in Cheyenne, Wyoming, when her purse fell to the floor. The impact caused the gun to fire and nearly missed another Starbucks customer, John Basile.
The gun, which was returned to the girl’s parents according to Wyoming News, was initially given to the girl by her father who urged her to use it as protection.
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The girl has no former training with weapons and said she usually keeps the gun in her room but had brought it with her because she was going to visit friends in another city.
Wyoming’s handgun laws state that residents are permitted to carry a handgun without being required to obtain a permit if the person meets certain restrictions.
City restrictions maintain that persons must be at least 18-years-old to carry a weapon. However, state law requires that a person must be at least 21-years-old to carry a concealed weapon.
The girl received a court summons for possession of a firearm by a juvenile, attached to a $750 bond.
Five other states allow concealed weapons to be carried without permits. A study done by Gallup reported: “A record-low 26 percent of Americans favor a legal ban on the possession of handguns in the United States other than by police and other authorized people.”
Rates shifted from 60 percent of people who favored a ban in 1959.
