Gun Found by Kids Called Too Rusty to Fire

A loaded .357 Magnum pistol discovered by two El Cajon children playing near their apartment was too rusty to have been fired, El Cajon police said Sunday.

Susan Barretto said her 6-year-old son, Christopher, and a 5-year-old playmate found the gun about 3 p.m. Saturday when they were looking for some toy cars they had lost in the ivy under a window of the apartment. The apartment is located in a complex in the 200 block of North Mollison Avenue.

Barretto said the two boys did not touch the gun but yelled for her to come out. “You tell your kids never to touch guns, but you never know how much they’ve learned,” she said.

“It just really shocked me when I think of what could have happened. Al lot of time they do play with toy guns.”

Barretto said she was relieved the gun could not have been fired. “I was so scared thinking about what could have happened, it kept me awake all night.”

Barretto said one of the reasons she and her family moved to San Diego from the Los Angeles area about a month ago was “to get away from bad neighborhoods. We were shocked this happened here. It seems to be a nice neighborhood.”

El Cajon Police Lt. Carl Case said he believed the incident was an isolated one. The area is not known for having problems, he said.

Case said a trace of the gun did not lead to the owner and that the weapon will be held by police for a while and then disposed of.