I’ve just read in today’s Star Ledger that investigators looking into the recent shooting death of a 12 year old boy in East Brunswick (see my previous blog on this) found 98 guns in the townhouse – 25 alone in the boy’s bedroom that he shared with his father, and 5 of those were loaded. Nearly all the guns were unsecured, meaning that with the ample amount of ammunition also found at the house, those guns could easily be loaded and fired by curious little boys.
Both the boy’s father and grandmother are being charged in this case and rightly so. How anyone could have an arsenal of unsecured weapons and ammunition in a house with young children in it is endangerment at its highest level. The fact that other relatives had forbidden their children to visit the premises only reinforces the fact that the family was well aware that this was a potentially deadly place for children to play.
A colleague of mine, herself the daughter of a police officer and used to being in a home where guns were stored, asked me recently if she was crazy to ask parents about guns in the house before allowing her son to play there. Crazy? Far from it. Asking this question before you let your child enter someone else’s home could be one of the smartest things you do as a parent. It could save your child’s life.
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