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In the 2013 article “Preventing School Shootings Starts with Gun Safety at Home,” Richard Aborn made an effort to give society a better insight of how school and accidental home shootings are in fact preventable and more importantly, how they could be prevented with parents and the government simply increasing firearm education and taking precautions of the weapons owned and stashed throughout their homes. Most of the school shootings are done by people ranging between 12 and 20 years of age. The question is, “Where are minors getting access to these guns?” Here are three quick examples of school shootings just to show that there are patterns with almost all school shootings. For the first example, discussing the shooting that took place in Sparks, Nevada. October 21, 2013, Sparks Middle School faced a tragedy leaving the suspect and one teacher dead, and two classmates were injured. Jose Reyes, a 12-year-old student at the middle school planned to take revenge on the students who made his life hell. Reyes got this Rugger 9mm semiautomatic from home where it was stashed in the kitchen cabinet.
The next example will be the shooting that occurred at Red Lake High School. The shooting spree began on the morning of March 21, 2005. Jeffery Weise, at age 16, shot and killed his grandfather and grandfather’s partner in their home before heading to the high school. Weise had taken his grandfather’s police-issued gun-belt, bullet-proof vest, squad car, and obviously his gun. Weise entered the middle school shooting at random. By the time the police had reached the school, two of the school staff and five students were dead. When the police approached Weise, he backed into a nearby classroom and killed himself. When Jefferey was done ten people were dead, including himself.
Lastly, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. On December 14, 2012, a 22, Adam Lanza murdered at least 27 people. That morning before heading to the elementary school, Lanza killed his mother, Nancy. In route of the school, Adam grabbed three guns from the house, a semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle and two pistols. Approaching the school Adam noticed that the doors were locked, due to the security system that was recently installed and shot his way into the school. Upon entry, three staff members were shot, and two of them died. The first classroom he entered had 14n students and without purpose, Lanza killed all fourteen children and their substitute teacher. He then entered another classroom where a teacher and her students were present. The teacher and six of her students were killed.
All these stories were in some ways different, but they all have one thing in common. All the guns used were taken from home. This is where taking precautions and going the extra mile as a parent to make sure that all of the weapons are stored in a safe place. These parents believed that their children would never take and use these guns, or they believed that the child had no clue where the guns were. As can see, just thinking or believing is not enough when it comes to things like this.
Not only will precautions prevent school shootings, it will also prevent accidental child death at home. In the article Aborn states that 89% of unintentional child shootings take place at home. While searching for stories on this topic, three of the top stories were chosen. First was an accidental shooting of a two-year-old in Greenville County where the toddler found the gun in the home and shot himself in the head. Second, NFL player, Derrius Guise’s three-year-old cousin found a gun in one of the bedrooms at home and accidentally shot himself in the head. Lastly, a six-year-old female was shot and killed by what was believed to had been a 12 year-old boy. In all three cases there were loaded guns in child’s reach without parent supervision. This should push parents to want to make their home safer for their kids especially when having a gun or any kind of weapon in the house.
In addition to taking precautions, parents and other gun owners must become more educated on firearms and the reasonings behind children using guns. Not only should families work to ensure safety in homes and the outside world but the government, firearm dealers, law enforcement etc. should also. More rules on the education required to own a gun are needed. When purchasing firearms there should be classes required to provide a clear understanding of just how dangerous guns are and how to prevent fatal accidents inside and outside of their home. Most people do not think that these kinds of things will happen to them and even if they do not happen, they sure are possible.
Researching and understanding signs and risk factors like violent video games, violet death related videos, images, and search history are important. Also knowing triggers or reasoning behind child gun usage, whether it be bullying and depression or feeling worthless at home. We must be aware that these things can affect young people in ways no one would ever think of. Just in case these things are going on, child access prevention laws should be endorsed in every state. Child access prevention laws are laws that are made to prevent firearm injuries of children by simply limiting their access to them. Under these laws gun owners who leave their guns available or accessible to children are criminally liable. These laws make gun owners think twice? before just storing their firearms anywhere in the house. There’s fact that properly storing firearms reduces the number of accidental shootings causing child death.
After researching all the key points from Aborn’s article it was made clear that the points made in the article are in fact true. Both school and accidental home shootings are preventable with a little more effort. These kinds of things do not come easy and maybe that is why no one has taken that extra step, unless forced by law, to do their part in making these shootings preventable.
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