Parenting: Children and gun safety

The recent shooting at a Bremerton, Washington elementary school raises a serious question about children and gun safety. The young girl remains in critical condition (as of the reporting of the Tacoma News Tribune) after a loaded handgun had gone off in a 9-year old boy’s backpack, striking the young girl in the abdomen (according to the same Tacoma News Tribune report). A situation parents do not want to hear. Let alone experience the reality of one’s child being the victim and/or the child being the perpetrator. Along with this news story, how prepared are we in the Marysville community in educating children the dangers of guns and being responsible parents and gun owners? We should openly communicate a question within our homes and in the public square about the realities and potential harm, guns are.

There are two questions raised because of this incident. Along with these two questions, there is the public policy and regulations that are in place to protect our children and community from such a situation as that having occurred in Bremerton, Washington. The first question is this: How could a 9-year old gain access to a loaded weapon? The second question rests upon the nature and argument as to whether or not the young man knew perfectly well, what he was doing. From here, we must look at what public policy stipulates for gun ownerships and how gun safety regulations play an integral part in keeping our communities safe from such events occurring.

Possession of a Firearm

Tacoma News Tribune reporter, Stacia Glenn, writes - Many questions remained, including how a child could have obtained a loaded weapon and brought it into a grade school classroom. A question we are not able to comprehend until the current investigation is complete. We are left with mere speculation as to how a firearm had been obtained. If the firearm was obtained because of lax gun safety precautions, then that raises a different set of questions as to who is liable for the incident (something we will discuss in a moment). However, if there were safety precautions put into place and yet the child still got hold of the firearm, then we must ask how proactive and aggressive were those safety precautions? Despite this, there is the alternative possibility that the child may have found the weapon and brought it with him. This theory may not work so well due to the fact that many news stories that are published have statements concerning the 9-year old as being somewhat troubled.

On mere speculation, the weapon may or may not be registered, and there may have been an ease of access to the handgun. To this, we segue into the debate of whether or not the child should be held liable, if the child understood what he did was wrong, and if he had confiscated the weapon with ease, should the gun owner be held responsible for the incident as well.

Accountability and responsibility

 According to the same news source (Tacoma News Tribune), staff writer Stacia Glenn states that Washington State has a presumption clause where a 9-year-old cannot commit a crime, although children 8-12 can be charged if prosecutors can prove the offender understood their actions were wrong (according to Pierce County deputy prosecutor Fred Wist).

According to Catherine Elliott, she makes the argument that children possess a limited personal autonomy and therefore do not have the capacity and freedom to make this choice…, which references the choice of criminal behavior/activity[1]. What Elliot argues is a concept called doli incapax (lack of capacity)[2]. Jessica Reaves, writing for Time Magazineshares a snapshot over the debate of criminal behavior and children. She writes:

The fundamental question is, are children capable of understanding the consequences of their actions? Maybe not; recent studies suggest that the brain’s prefrontal lobe, which some scientists speculate plays a crucial role in inhibiting inappropriate behavior, may  not reach full development until age 20.

She then cites an ABC news poll where 55% believed that it is the nature and extent of the crime and not the age of the perpetrator should be the determining factor in sentencing. Granted, the article from Time Magazine is dated in 2001, it is the same question we are faced with today in respect to the incident of this tragedy at an elementary school. Unfortunately, we should not attempt to answer the question outside of the available facts that we have. There is no report as to exactly why the 9-year old brought the gun, nor is there any indication, as of yet, pertaining to how he came to have possession of the weapon. What we are able to ascertain is that the event happened and the investigation would include an answer to these, and many other, questions.

Public Policy and stricter Gun safety policies

In light of all this, one additional question remains – should Washington State adopt a more stringent policy on gun ownership and safety? According to the News Tribune Article, Glenn quotes Gregory Roberts, executive director of Washington Cease Fire – a Brady Campaign Affiliate as saying Washington state is a loosely regulated state when it comes to firearms. This is because the Brady Campaign, according to Glenn’s News Tribune article, Washington scored no points in the child safety category because the state does not require trigger locks for guns and lacks laws to prevent child access to firearms.

In addition to this, we must also ask whether or not the parents of the 9-year-old be held criminally negligible[3] if there were no safe guards and safety measures put into place as a gun owner? Moreover, would this also show that the parents/guardians lacked the integrity of proper parenting to ensure that not only their child is safe, but those their child interacts with are safe as well?

The strongest argument is that as parents, we not only have the duty, but it is our obligation to ensure that we properly instruct and teach our children the difference between right and wrong, as well as teach them appropriate safety precautions and education when it comes to firearms. The problem is, we have developed from a society of responsible citizens to a society that embraces the false ideology of being entitled – until someone is seriously injured or killed because of our negligence and lack of appropriate behavior. Either way, the reality is that there is more to the story as to why and how a 9-year old was able to walk into his elementary school with a loaded pistol in his backpack. However, we should never wait for a tragic incident like this to re-examine our current laws and policies, or attempt to develop new policies when the failure is on the part of those who refuse to engage a decent act of common sense and thinking.