Young TikToker, 15, accidentally shoots herself dead while posing with a gun for video
Yazmin Esmeralda, a 15-year-old, accidentally shot herself dead while trying to make a TikTok video while posing with a submachine gun in Mexico. Yazmin was visiting her mother and younger sibling in Sinaloa, Mexico when she fatally shot herself. The poor teen found the 9mm Uzi submachine gun at the foot of a bedroom closet in her grandmothers’ house and asked her little brother to record her posing with the gun so she could post it on TikTok.
In the act, the 9mm Uzi submachine accidentally went off killing the girl instantly. Yazmin’s mother was sleeping at the time and later woke up to the loud sound of the gunfire, she told the local press. Sara Bruna Quiñonez Estrada, Sinaloa's state prosecutor said that it is not clear as of now why the family was in possession of the weapon in the first place. According to her, the Uzi submachine gun stopped being used in military operations for the same reason; its safety lock was difficult to use, which resulted in them going off accidentally. There have been similar cases around the world, Taniyria Holt, an Atlanta woman, 24, accidentally shot her sister, 18, in the face when they were playing with a gun in their car. In 2020, a Texas babysitter shot a 10-year-old boy in the stomach while taking selfies with a loaded gun at home.
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Sara Bruna also said that it is difficult for civilians to buy weapons in Mexico owing to the impending firearm regulation in Mexico. There is only one official gun shop in the country and the permits to buy a gun are expensive and usually take years to obtain. Moreover, illegal weapons are constantly flooding the country through US gun shops prior to being smuggled illegally into the hands of cartel members across the southern border, reports Vice.
The state’s prosecutor pointed out the negligence of the adults in the house and the mindset of the youth immersed in that culture. "The fact that there were weapons in the house, that weren’t controlled, is the responsibility of the adults who knew there were children in the house. That she chose to record a clip [in that way] shows that our youth is immersed in that culture,” Estrada said. "It’s what they hear about at all hours," she added.
Sinaloa in Mexico also happens to be the home of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman a former drug lord who is now serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado, US. Sinaloa cartel sold the region’s poppy and marijuana products internationally and Guzman was responsible for turning it into one of the most successful criminal organizations in the world. Despite serving jail time Guzman is fiercely admired by contemporaries and people of Sinaloa.
However, in this case, the teen's death while highlighting the gun menace in Mexico also sheds light on the dangers of TikTok. TikTok is hailed as a lighthearted, fun app with approximately 800 million active users worldwide. Of these users, around 40 percent are between the ages of 14 to 24 and these are some very impressionable age groups. Users put up short videos aiming to rack up hearts (much like the “likes” of Facebook or Instagram), comments, and reposts/duets. In pursuit of followers or 'likes' teens/people often end up doing some really risky stunts like this one, where the victim not endangered herself, but also her younger's sibling's life while handling the gun.
