In the summer of 2021, a heart-wrenching incident unfolded in Barre, Vermont, forever changing the lives of one family. Three-year-old Peter D. Bunce, a young male, was visiting his uncle and his uncle's girlfriend, Rebecca Post, with his father and siblings. On June 26, the curious toddler found a loaded Glock 26 semiautomatic handgun that had been left in a bedside table drawer in Post's home.
Peter's father, Greg Bunce, was in the bathroom for only a few moments when he heard the
sound of a gunshot. Rushing out, he was met with an unimaginable scene: his young son had accidentally shot himself. The moments that followed were filled with a parent's worst nightmare, a frantic and tragic realization of what had just occurred. The young boy's life was cut short in an instant, a devastating consequence of an unsecured firearm.
In the wake of this tragedy, the Washington County state's attorney at the time, Rory Thibault, declined to press criminal charges against Rebecca Post, the owner of the handgun. The reasoning provided was that, under Vermont law as it existed then, it was not illegal to keep a loaded and unlocked firearm within one's own home. This decision, however, did not close the chapter on the pursuit of accountability for the young boy's death.
Peter's parents, Greg and Evelyn Bunce, later filed a civil lawsuit against Rebecca Post, alleging negligence. They also initiated a separate lawsuit against the gun's manufacturer, Glock, arguing that the company markets weapons without essential safety mechanisms, making such accidental deaths a foreseeable outcome. The family's profound loss also had a lasting impact on state legislation, as Peter's death was a key inspiration behind Vermont's new safe storage law, which criminalizes the negligent storage of firearms that are then misused.
