Dad shoots 7-year-old daughter while threatening mother; media trivializes incident as "domestic spat" (The Philippines)

Excellent example of how the media trivializes the violence of fathers, especially when it's directed at women and children. This is clearly an act of assault, and yet the news report softens it down to a "domestic spat" or "heated exchange" (as if they were merely disagreeing on who was washing the dishes). Within this context, this was not an "accident." The gun did not misfire while Daddy was cleaning it. Rather he was attempting to intimidate and control his family through waving around a firearm. Whether he "intended" to shoot is really irrelevant.

UNNAMED DAD

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/354336/news/regions/report-7-year-old-daughter-accidentally-shot-by-father-in-negros-occidental

Report: 7-year-old daughter accidentally shot by father in Negros Occidental

March 27, 2014 10:01am

A seven-year-old child was accidentally shot by her own father during a domestic spat in their house in Negros Occidental, a radio report said early Thursday.

Visayas-based Bombo Radyo said the incident occurred in Barangay Inolingan in Moises Padilla town, when the girl's father was having an argument with his wife.

Police charged the father, aged 44, with illegal possession of firearms.

Town police chief Senior Inspector Edfil Balibadlan said their initial findings showed the father was drunk and had a heated exchange with his wife and in-law.

During the argument, he got his handgun and fired it, but one of the shots hit his daughter in the back and kidney. The child was brought to the Western Visayas Regional Hospital.

The 44-year-old was detained at the Moises Padilla police station. — LBG, GMA News