A young Iowa boy has recovered after accidentally shooting himself with a gun he found in his mother's car. That woman was fined and put on probation as a result of the incident.

Rachel Marie Rowe, 28, pleaded guilty in August to allowing unlawful access to a loaded firearm by a child, court records show. Her then-4-year-old son was in his mother's SUV with another child May 29 when he found a .45 caliber handgun and shot himself in the upper arm, police say.

"This wasn't a typical situation where someone just left a firearm in kids' access," Kent Balduchi, Rowe' attorney, said Friday. "Both her and her husband thought the gun was in a child-safe holster but (it apparently) was taken out."

He said the parents usually keep the gun in a holster children cannot open, then they put it into another container. But at some point, the gun was placed into a container the 4-year-old was able to unlock May 29.

Rowe, who has a Carlisle address in court records, told the judge in her case that while she was running errands, she left her children in a vehicle where a weapon was located.

"This allowed my son to access the weapon," she said in court records. "My son was injured in this incident."

Her attorney said Rowe has taken steps to ensure firearms are "absolutely inaccessible" to her children.

"I think she would say — she'd said to me and she'd say to everyone else — even when taking precautions, one has to take further steps, and do that 'what-if' checklist and think of everything that can possibly go wrong," Balduchi said.

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A $315 fine and $300 supervision fee was levied against Rowe, who also has to pay an undisclosed amount of restitution. She was granted a deferred judgment and sentenced to one year of probation, court records show.

Rowe had faced up to two years in jail and $6,250 in fines. Balduchi credited prosecutors for reaching a "fair outcome" for the crime.

"It was in fact an accident and it wasn't negligent in the sense of not exercising care or caution," he said. "The circumstances were just outside of what she foreseen."

The child had to undergo surgery after the accidental shooting, police say, but was expected to recover well. Balduchi said the boy is back with his "loving" mother.

"Obviously, Ms. Rowe feels horrible that this happened," he said. "She's immensely thankful that her son wasn't hurt worse than he was. As a mom, she feels terrible."

Law enforcement allowed the mother several days to care for her child before charging her. Rowe, who has no prior criminal history in Polk County, was cited and released at the time of the incident.

The incident happened just before 2 p.m. May 29, according to a criminal complaint. The loaded gun was behind the seat where two kids were sitting in the car. As Rowe momentarily left her children in the vehicle to run into a relative's house, the boy found and fired the weapon. The second child was uninjured.

"Gun ownership comes with responsibilities, the most important being keeping guns out of the hands of toddlers," Des Moines police Sgt. Paul Parizek previously told the Register. "We ask that each gun owner make certain that their guns are safely stored so that these tragedies can be prevented."

Balduchi said parents should never underestimate their children's ability to get into things when adults aren't around.

"You can't practice too much safety — there's no limit to safety precautions when it comes to firearms," he said. "She thought she was being safe. She has reassessed that and would urge anyone in her circumstance with small children to go even further and think of every possible scenario where things can go wrong."

Previous reporting from the Register's Gage Miskimen contributed to this story.

Follow the Register on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Tyler Davis can be contacted at 515-284-8378, tjdavis@dmreg.com or on Twitter @TDavisDMR.

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