In 2008, a nine-year-old Upper Saint Clair boy shot and killed his twin brother, who was a third grader at the local elementary school. Police called the incident an accidental shooting when they learned that the boys had been playing with their father’s hunting rifle after he had showed them how to clean his guns.
Almost two years later, after being apprehended by FBI agents overseas, the twins’ father pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter, flight to avoid prosecution, and endangering the welfare of children. At his sentencing hearing, the district attorney who was handling the case told the judge “this wasn’t just a bad incident on one day,” but “a series of bad parental decisions and bad judgements that ultimately had a very terrible conclusion.”
In court, the heartbroken father asked his surviving son to forgive him.
“If I could change places with him, I would do it,” he said. “But I can’t. If only I had done so many different things.”
***
Although citizens on all sides of the political spectrum hold strong personal opinions about guns and gun ownership, on this point everyone agrees: guns are dangerous.
Gun violence is not just about crime. Any injury or death that involves firearms, whether intentional or accidental, contributes to the risk that children face in a society that values the freedom to own weapons.
It seems logical that the more guns we have, the greater the danger, but is this true? How do firearms impact our children? To what degree do guns factor into the current crisis of youth suicide? Are school shootings occurring more frequently? How worried should kids and parents be that a shooting might occur at their school?
Most importantly, what steps can parents take to keep their children safe from gun violence?
Start with the statistics
American citizens own more guns per capita than any other country in the world. There are nearly 400 million guns in circulation in the United States and, according to the Journal of Urban Health, an estimated 4.6 million children live in homes with at least one gun that is loaded and unlocked.
Every year, an average of 111 children and teens die by gun violence in Pennsylvania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The 2019 Pennsylvania Child Death Review Annual Report, published by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, lists firearms as the “leading cause of death among children and teens in Pennsylvania.”
It’s worth noting that these statistics were calculated pre-covid. The coronavirus pandemic sparked an unprecedented frenzy of gun buying, including sales to many first-time gun buyers all over the country. In March and April of 2020, almost 2 million more guns were sold nationwide as compared to the same time period in 2019. Gun stores in southwest Pennsylvania reported running out of stock as early as March. In our state, the record number of gun purchases during the first quarter of 2020 created a backlog that caused the Pennsylvania State Police background check system to crash multiple times.
When states nationwide enacted shelter-in-place orders in March and April 2020, unintentional shootings by children resulted in at least 21 gun deaths, which represent a 43% increase as compared to the average gun deaths during the same two-month period over three prior years.
It’s too early to know whether or not Pennsylvania followed this pattern. Future studies will determine what happened during the months that Pennsylvania’s stay-at-home order was in place.
Guns and youth suicide
Although two-thirds of gun owners say the predominant reason they own a gun is for personal protection, guns are used far more often for suicide than self-defense.
“Suicide by firearm is a big problem,” says Kathryn Fleisher, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh who, in the aftermath of the Tree of Life shooting, founded Not My Generation, an organization that builds coalitions of young people in cities across the country to pursue intersectional, localized gun violence prevention.
“In the United States, 66% of gun violence incidents are suicide. That’s a huge number, Kathryn says. “Suicide attempts are only successful 5% of the time, unless a firearm is involved.”
As youth suicide rates rise, continuing a 20-year trend, access to guns looms as a central focus of concern.
Recently, for the first time, a group of researchers wanted to know if there is a correlation between household gun ownership and youth suicide rates. In January 2019, the American Journal of Preventative Medicine published their report which found that every 10 percentage point increase in household gun ownership associated with a nearly 27 percent increase in the youth suicide rate.
Study co-author, Dr. Michael Siegel, professor of community health sciences at Boston University, told the Journal, “the strongest single predictor of a state’s youth suicide rate is the prevalence of household gun ownership in that state. The level of gun ownership is a much better predictor of youth suicide than even knowing the exact number of youth who will attempt suicide in a given year.”
It is estimated that over 27% of Pennsylvania citizens own weapons, which is close to the national average of registered gun owners in the United States.
School shootings
Since the deadly rampage at Columbine High School in 1999, an entire generation of children has grown up worrying that something similar could happen at their own school. When a mass shooting occurs, the terrifying images and emotional accounts of the shooting create a sense that these violent tragedies are happening more frequently. Historically, it has been difficult to determine whether or not this is the case when government, media, and other outlets interpret or change the definitions of terms like “mass homicide” and “active shooter.”
One psychology researcher who studies mass homicides at Stetson University argued in a 2019 article written for the American Council on Science and Health that when using standard definitions, “most data suggest that the prevalence of mass shootings has stayed fairly consistent over the past few decades.”
However, in 2018, the Department of Homeland Defense and Security released a live, interactive, inclusive database called the K-12 School Shooting Database, that documents every instance from 1970 to the present where a gun is brandished or fired, or a bullet hits school property anywhere in the United States.
Strictly using the FBI’s definition of “active shooter,” this database revealed that from 2000 to 2019, there have been 95 “active shooter” incidents in U.S. schools, and the average number of days between school shootings has been decreasing. From 1999 to 2014, the average number of days was 124. But from 2015 to 2018, the average shortened to 77 days. The longest our country has gone without a single school shooting was 574 days from April 2001 to November 2002.
These statistics suggest that violent school shootings are becoming more frequent.
To keep things in perspective, though, children are still at far greater risk of injury or death in a car accident, drowning, or choking. Mass school shootings are extremely rare, and children do not risk their lives by attending school.
What common sense steps can mitigate gun violence?
The Greater Pittsburgh Coalition Against Violence (CAV), is an organization that consists of community and religious leaders, police, government and education representatives, and concerned citizens who work together to identify strategies that reduce violence in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County.
On its website, CAV offers a comprehensive publication called Strategies for Change: Building More Peaceful Communities. Now in its third edition, this document serves as a valuable resource that tackles head on the problems of violence in our area. Specifically addressing gun violence, the document reads:
“A civil society is based on citizens and lawful authorities working cooperatively to reduce the violence in our neighborhoods. The irresponsible use of guns, especially handguns, is to blame for a great percentage of the violence and killing that occur in our neighborhoods. In addition, guns are frequently involved in accidental injuries.”
Among the ideas and solutions that CAV offers to communities, law enforcement, legislators, pediatricians, and mental health experts, these are the Coalition’s recommendations for families:
- There is NO SAFE WAY to tell for certain whether a gun is loaded or unloaded—especially for a child. Gun manufacturers do not provide loaded magazine indicators or child safety locks and until they do, children should not be anywhere close to handling guns.
- Ask if there is a gun in the home where your child goes to play. If the answer is “Yes,” ask how the gun is stored.
- Decide where you want your child to be playing based on the presence of firearms.
- Talk with your pediatrician about the various risks of guns in the home for all ages of children.
- Discuss the difference between real gun violence and the glorified violence in video games and movies with children and other household members. Be a good role model of gun safety and responsible behavior.
- Provide age-appropriate gun safety instruction to all members of the household, if you plan to purchase a gun for the home. Emphasize that guns should be pointed only in a safe direction, that the trigger should not be touched, and confirm that it is not loaded. Teach respect for the destructive potential of guns.
- Secure all firearms in the home to reduce the risk of accidents, theft, or unauthorized use. Keep guns and ammunition locked away in separate locations when not in use. Store guns unloaded and use a gunlock. Any defensive gun kept to protect a family must be stored unloaded and secured with a gun lock against unauthorized or unlawful use.
- Do not allow children or visitors to have unsupervised access to guns stored in the family home. Plan carefully to avoid a tragedy.
- Support community and legislative efforts to reduce the presence of guns and the levels of gun violence in our neighborhoods. Contact elected officials in person, write letters, send emails, sign petitions, and attend community events to voice one’s opinions. Vote for candidates who support efforts to stop irresponsible gun ownership to make our neighborhoods safer from gun violence.
- Insist that law enforcement track down the source of guns used in crimes in order to stop the flow of crime guns and illegal guns wreaking havoc in our neighborhoods, especially in those neighborhoods disproportionately affected by gun violence. Once said gun tracking data is collected, it shall be made available for analysis by city, county, and state lawmakers, policymakers, and academics.
- Be proactive; choose not to have guns in the home.
The golden rule
“Always assume your kids know where your gun is. That is the Golden Rule of gun violence prevention,” says Kathryn Fleisher, who also adds these suggestions for parents:
- Treat vehicles the same as homes, because a lot of accidental shootings happen in cars. Always ask if someone has a weapon in the car.
- Take a real look at your children’s mental health. Make sure your kids have access to mental health services. “There is nothing wrong with therapy, and this can make a big difference to help kids with suicide ideation,” she says
***
In 2006, a 14-year old Greensburg boy entered his next door neighbor’s home to feed puppies while the family was away. The next day, his father, who worried when his son never returned home, discovered the boy’s body lying in the woods between their homes. He had died from a single gunshot to his head. Next to his body was a 9mm handgun that was registered to their neighbor, who, at the time, was a first-time Pennsylvania state senator.
The public will never know exactly what happened the night this boy died. After the coroner ruled his death a suicide, the two families had been battling each other in court until 2018, when the two sides finally reached a confidential wrongful death settlement.
I’ve been thinking about this boy, though. I had attended his funeral, and I remember the long lines that wound through the parking lot outside the funeral home. I’ve been recalling the pain that was etched on the face of his grief stricken mother, who made a valiant attempt to smile and comfort the throngs of people who came to pay their respects. What I remember most is that it felt like somebody had punched me in the gut when I saw that child’s lifeless body in the casket. It hurt to realize that all it took was a split second and one squeeze of a trigger to end this boy’s promising life.
“It’s not just about firearms,” Kathryn told me.
She is absolutely right.
Writer Ann K. Howley lives in Pittsburgh and recently completed her first young adult novel.
