The weapon was a 9 mm handgun legally purchased by the child’s mother. The 6-year-old found the gun on the top shelf in a bedroom closet and shot his teacher last month in Newport News, Va. Sounds shocking, but actually, since 1999, there have been 11 cases in which the person pulling the trigger at school was no older than 10. In most cases, the shooting was unintentional.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, guns are now the No. 1 killer of children in the U.S., surpassing car accidents. The proliferation of gun sales within the last three years has led to greater accessibility and likelihood of injury or death by gun. An estimated 4.6 million children live in homes where guns are loaded and unlocked. In 2022, there were 301 unintentional shootings by children, resulting in 133 deaths and 180 injuries, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Such tragedies have occurred in our area. Last September, a woman in Spartanburg, S.C., was fatally shot by her 3-year-old when the child gained access to an unsecured firearm. On Christmas Day 2021, a 3 1/2-year-old child in Edneyville accidentally shot herself and died when she found a handgun in her brother’s truck.
All of these deaths and injuries were preventable.
Teaching children not to touch guns is important, but the ultimate responsibility lies with adults. In the home, biometric safes accessible only by the adult owner are as easy to access as a nightstand drawer if needed in an emergency. Outside the home, guns for protection shouldn’t be left in glove boxes or purses where the gun can be accessed by children. As we learn from the Newport News shooting, hiding a gun on a closet shelf is not secure.
In Hendersonville, I lead a gun safety program called Be SMART for Kids, a nonpolitical, structured, consciousness-raising effort that teaches parents concrete steps they can take to keep their children safe from gun injury or death.
SMART stands for:
S — Secure your gun in a safe or on your body.
M — Model responsible behavior (talk to your kids).
A — Ask about the presence of guns in homes where your children go.
R — Recognize the role of guns in suicide.
T — Tell others to Be SMART.
Wise choices by adult gun owners will save lives.
— Kim Chao
Hendersonville
Editor’s note: Chao notes that she’s the Be SMART coordinator in Hendersonville and offers presentations and educational materials to organizations and concerned citizens groups. She can be contacted at besmarthendo@gmail.com. In Asheville, contact besmartasheville@gmail.com.
Let me propose an even simpler, more effective way to stop this nonsense of young children and minors obtaining guns. Laws should be enacted that severely punish any adult that allows this to happen; as in manslaughter charges and serious jail time. That would most definitely include parents and family members of the child, if they were the cause.
I find incredulous that the gun rights community can’t seem to link the personal right to own firearms (which I agree with) with the personal responsiblitiy needed for protecting innoncents from those same weapons. I guess they can’t be bothered with basic firearm controls that would prevent these tragedies.
Sorry, no.
For children (under 14) the CDC reports guns being the 10th major cause, tied with heart and paracitic diseases.
You likely incorporated teenagers, which by proxy included all teen street gang members. The National Gang Center notes gang recruitment begins at 14.
I include all chldren, but especially the youngest ones who don’t even know what they are handling.
Sounds like some have already prepared a response to oppose a proposal like mine by downplaying the number of deaths of young children by household firearm (#10 as you report) and introducing the issue of young gang members (who would obtain guns outside of the home.
OK, so what about something in the middle? Say a child/minor (and up to 18) who obtains a gun owned by family member and uses it on themselves or others.
What would responsible gun owners think about requiring that level of personal responsiblity?
So if Adam Lanza had merely beaten his mother so badly that she gave him the key to the gun safe instead of killing her and stealing it, would you send her to prison? What if Adam just threatened to kill her in bed with a knife Kohberger style if she didn’t cough up the key??
Well you know, if parents know they have to be responsible for their children’s action……then in the case of Adam Lanza’s mother, she wouldn’t have (shouldn’t) had a gun. And certainly not an assault weapon. Period.
You see, it is amazing what requiring personal responsiblity (including the responsbility of a parent for their children’s actions) for gun ownership might do to reduce all these absolutely insane shootings by young people.
You want unlimited gun ownership in America. Fine. But don’t come to me with claptrap about avoiding adult responsiblity for owning firearms.