A prosecutor in Newport News, VA, has decided not to charge the 6-year-old first grader who in January shot his teacher at Richneck Elementary School in that city. Commonwealth attorney Howard Gwynn explained that in his view a child that young would not understand the legal system. Gwynn also indicated that he was still deciding whether others could face criminal charges.
Gwynn’s decision not to charge the six-year-old is sound. The child likely did not understand the consequences of his actions. In all probability he was imitating some action he had seen on television or social media, or witnessed in person.
But the fact is an innocent individual, Abigail Zwerner, an apparently competent and responsible school teacher, was simply doing her job when she was seriously injured by a child who somehow had obtained a 9-millimeter Taurus handgun. That there was not even greater tragedy on this occasion is a miracle. There were some 16-20 other students in the classroom at the time Zwerner was attacked. Despite being shot in the hand and the chest, she ushered the other students out of the classroom, while another teacher disarmed and restrained the six-year old.
There are several parties that bear some responsibility for this incident and it is imperative that they suffer some consequences. Gun violence in American cannot likely be totally eliminated, but the fact that a six-year-old child can obtain a lethal firearm and endanger others is unacceptable in a civilized country.
According to police, the weapon used by the six-year-old was legally purchased by the boy’s mother. The family has claimed that the “firearm our son accessed was secured.” They have offered no explanation as to how the child could have gained access to the “secured” weapon, or how he could have carried it with him to school unchallenged.
It also has been reported that the six-year-old was under a care plan that included having his mother or father attend school with him and accompanying him to class every day. Neither was in the class with him the day of the shooting, nor did they check what he was taking to school with him.
Another report indicated that a school official had been told that the six-year-old had a firearm, but when his backpack was searched, no weapon was found. Whether or not there was any search beyond his backpack has not been disclosed.
The shooting was the third gun incident on school property in the last 18 months, which seems to confirm a lack of any sense of urgency among school officials. While the Newport News School Board fired the school superintendent three weeks after the shooting, and an assistant principal at Richneck resigned on same day, the impact of the superintendent’s firing was muddled to some degree by the board’s decision to provide him a generous severance package that included his salary for two years, approximately $500,000.
Legislators in the two Carolinas have had bizarre responses to this incident.
In South Carolina, the state house of representatives has approved a bill that would allow people as young as18 years old to carry loaded handguns openly without a permit or without any appropriate firearms training. Existing law does not allow open carry and permits for concealed carry call for eight hours of training. An amendment seeking to add language encouraging applicants to complete a “firearm education course” failed.
Under the bill someone carrying a firearm might still face restrictions on access to a number of sites including detention centers, courthouses, polling places, government offices, school athletic events, schools, religious sanctuaries and doctors’ offices. I doubt if anyone has calculated the cost of monitoring access to all of these places.
As an obvious sop to African American legislators opposed to the bill, an amendment was added that explicitly stated the open carry of a firearm “does not give law enforcement officers reasonable suspicion or probable cause to search, detain or arrest the person.”
Labeled the “constitutional carry” bill, it has not yet been approved by the SC Senate.
In North Carolina, the state senate has passed a bill to remove a long standing requirement that persons seeking to buy a handgun must have prior approval from their county sheriff. It also includes a previously vetoed provision that would allow more people to carry concealed firearms while attending religious services at locations where private or charter school also meet. The NC House of Representatives appears ready to approve all elements of the senate proposal.
Both NC chambers have approved a separate proposal to create and fund a two-year education campaign addressing the safe storage of firearms and the distribution of free gun locks. There is no mention of penalties for failing to secure firearms or for allowing them to fall into the wrong hands.
There are some more promising efforts to stem gun violence in America. A county prosecutor in Michigan has succeeded in charging the parents of Ethan Crumbley, 15, with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. The parents in late November 2021, purchased for their son a SIG Sauer 9-mm., semi-automatic pistol as a Christmas gift, despite evidence that they knew he was having mental health problems. With his new gun Ethan went to his high school and shot and killed four of his high school classmates and wounded six others and a teacher. Last month, a Michigan judge ruled the prosecutor had presented sufficient cause for the parents to stand trial.
Two years ago, I wrote a post about the gun violence pandemic in America. Things have only gotten worse. Although the US Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in June 2022, a month after 19 children and two teachers were killed at a Texas elementary school, there was little of substance in the act. It includes incentives for states to pass red flag laws, expansion of background checks for people between the ages of 18 and 21 seeking to buy a gun, and inclusion of dating partners rather than only spouses and former spouses among those who may be prevented from owning a gun if convicted of domestic abuse.
Shortly after passage of the congressional legislation, the US Supreme Court struck down a century old New York law that limited licenses to carry a gun outside the home to people carrying them for sports like hunting or shooting, and those with special needs, like messengers carrying cash. The decision reflects the preference of the current court majority for a simple minded interpretation of the Second Amendment. It makes no sense to argue that any “right” granted to an American is unlimited.
This country is in a quandary. Law enforcement and the courts appear reluctant to assign responsibility when guns are used for lethal injury, and legislatures are unable to craft laws that encourage responsible gun ownership. These failures leave America exposed to perpetual gun violence and threatens the survival all our other rights.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/09/us/newport-news-school-shooting.html
https://abcnews.go.com/US/family-6-year-shot-teacher-speaks-1st-time/story?id=96536112
https://abc11.com/poltics-gun-laws-in-nc-general-assembly/12859276/
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/oxford-school-shooting-ethan-crumbley-parents.html