The 11-year-old accused of taking a loaded gun from his mother’s car and shooting two 13-year-olds at an Apopka Pop Warner game is now at least the third time in Central Florida over the past several months where a child has gotten access to a gun and fired it.
A 3-year-old in Deland fatally shot himself in the face with his father’s gun. The father, who happens to be a correctional officer, told investigators his gun safe broke and he tried to move the gun to a safe place.
A 5-year-old who discovered an adult’s gun in Casselberry shot himself and someone else in the leg.
Currently, Florida state law penalizes an adult with a second-degree misdemeanor if a child gets access to a gun.
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But Florida State Sen. Linda Stewart is trying again to toughen that law.
In March, the Orange County Democrat called for an upgraded misdemeanor and even felony if a child gets his hands on an improperly stored gun.
Now, Stewart said she’s drafting a bill that would require guns locked up inside the house.
“And this is to prevent what happens so often particularly what happened with a child having access and shooting and killing someone by accident,” Stewart said. “But the accident could have been prevented had the gun required to be in a locked box. That should be non-partisan.”
Stewart admitted safe gun storage is logical but said a growing number of gun owners are not storing their firearms safely.
“We’re not asking to take your gun away or whether or not you be eligible to have a gun or concealed or not concealed, this has nothing to do with it,” Stewart said. “This is purely gun safety and no one should be against gun safety.”
Brevard County Republican State Rep. Randy Fine is staunchly opposed to strengthening any gun storage law.
“What we need is better parents is what we need, it’s already against the law to improperly secure a gun,” Fine said. “It’s not as though what this parent allowed to happen was legal, it’s already illegal. Why a parent I would presume has an unlocked car, I mean, look, we don’t know the details but one would assume that if the mother was sitting in the car she wouldn’t have told the 11-year-old sure take the gun. We should be comfortable saying this parent who left their car unlocked with a gun is a bad parent. We should be willing to make those statements and no law would probably change that. And we need to bring back the idea of shaming and common sense. We’re not looking for Magical solutions. I’ll say it again – anyone who thought leaving a car unlocked with a gun in it was a good idea is probably not going to be deterred by any law.”
Stewart disagreed.
“If we make them put the guns in the safe place, we’ll have less and less of these incidents,” Stewart said. “But no, I don’t agree that stupid people do stupid things so we should do nothing. That doesn’t seem to me like the way to go.”
Fine questioned the enforcement of the current law.
“What have law enforcement and prosecutors done to parents who have failed to secure guns using the laws that we have on the books today?” Fine said.
There have been several recent examples of law enforcement arresting those who do not secure guns giving kids access to them.
And prosecutors are prosecuting those adults, when appropriate. Newly appointed Orange-Osceola County State Attorney Andrew Bain promised to prosecute Tuesday morning.
“So we’re going to stand strong and deal with those cases and end or put a big slow down to what’s going on in the streets right now,” Bain said.
Longtime Flagler-Volusia County State Attorney R.J. Larizza, together with Volusia Sheriff Mike Chitwood, decided not to prosecute in one particular case – the corrections officer who tried and failed to safely store his gun when his gun safe failed “because the criteria wasn’t there.”
“My job is to prosecute crimes and the sheriff’s job is to investigate crimes and investigate those who commit them,” Larizza said. “We get blamed sometimes because why aren’t you doing more. What more can we do. We need help. We need help from families, the community, other institutions. Help us combat this because we want it to go away. We want it to stop. I don’t take pride and prosecuting these cases but that is my job.”
Chitwood said an additional or tougher law isn’t necessarily the answer, but he’s not opposed to it.
“Be a God-damn parent and stop being a friend!” Chitwood said. “It’s sad to say this, but we have to strengthen laws when it comes to parenting and when it comes to parents, that firearms is definitely one of those avenues right there.”
Sen. Stewart said her revised gun safe storage bill is currently being reviewed by drafting in Tallahassee and she’ll introduce it in the legislature in the next several weeks.
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