Betty finished packing her purse; keys, cell phone, wallet with her credit cards and her Ruger LCR .38 Special Revolver. Her husband, Roger, had purchased if for her with a laser sight since she was not used to firing guns and it would help her during gun safety classes at the local indoor range. It was light weight and compact and fit her hand perfectly. It was also very user-friendly for her and simple for her to clean. The only down side was that it was extremely loud to shoot and made her flinch every time she fired it.

Living in this remote part of North Carolina, Roger had insisted she learn how to use it for self defense. “You never know who lurks in the woods around her. You remember that guy that went missing for over two years and in that time he lived around here and killed two innocent women. They finally caught him behind the dumpster at the Roy Rob store in the early morning scarfing up some garbage that had been thrown out.”

She regretted the marriage from the start. They were married in Atlanta. He was a skilled computer software engineer and she had a good paying job as an administrative assistant for a local drug manufacture. After 3 kids, with Nelson being he youngest, he wanted to go back to “nature”. They bought a small cabin in the remote area in Yadkin county. Her life now consisted of getting Roger up in the morning, feeding him breakfast, taking him to work at the local lumber mill (he couldn’t drive because of two DWI’s). She did all the chores at home including going to the store for supplies; which she was now getting ready to do. She would then pick him up from work; he was already half drunk by then, and take him home so she could prepare dinner. He would have dinner, drink 4 or 5 beers, and then go to bed. It was the same day after day. Their weekends consisted of going to the local bar on Friday and Saturday nights and drinking beer and  watching sports on Sunday. She had no girl friends except for the two druggies next door.

She hated her life. She hated Roger. She would love to move back to Atlanta and be near her family. Her sister and mother could help take care of the kids while she looked for employment. Then she would get an apartment and make lots of new girlfriends. Leave Roger here in the boonies by himself and his drinking buddies. But she knew Roger would find her and her life would be even more depressing than it already was.

She loaded her 2 year old son, Nelson, and headed for the local Super Wal-Mart. She needed to buy groceries for the week, some personal items, and of course a couple of cases of beer for Roger.

She put Nelson in front of the cart with her purse and headed down the beer isle. She had just put the first case of beer in the cart when she noticed her son reaching into her purse where she was carrying the gun and it went off with a roar.

When the police arrived she explained that when she noticed her son had his hands in her purse, she reached in to get hold of the gun and it fired one shot, hitting her in the right hand. Luckily, Nelson was not injured.

She fully expected the police to charge her with failure to secure a firearm from a minor, a misdemeanor. But after consulting with the local District Attorney’s office decided  not to charge her because she had a legal concealed-carry permit for the gun and was not in violation of the law. The District Attorney said the incident would be similar to a person wearing a holstered gun and a person running up and putting their hands on the weapon, causing it to fire.

Now, if she could just get Roger to put his hands in her purse….Hello Atlanta.