How can parents secure guns and talk to children about safety

Jun 06, 2023

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Safety experts are sharing tips for gun owners following the accidental shooting of a teen playing with a gun in Jacksonville.

Detectives determined that a group of five teens were left unsupervised in a home Friday night with access to a firearm which police say was mishandled, causing it to discharge and strike the 16-year-old victim in the leg. The teenager was treated at the hospital for injuries considered non-life threatening.

Police say one child that was at the home was arrested for tampering with evidence. Potential additional charges against others, including the gun owner, is pending an investigation.

Officers were not able to comment on how the teen accessed the gun due to the investigation. But for parents with children and guns at home, safely storing firearms can prevent similar accidents.

Three-hundred and fifty children under the age of 18 accidentally shoot themselves or someone else every year in the US, according to the Everytown research group.

Leaders with MAD DADs have seen it happen here in Jacksonville.

"They left it exposed where children, infants can get to it and that gun can come out into our society and kill somebody, innocently," AJ Jordan, with Mad Dads, said.

That's why gun safety experts like Rodger Carlson hold training classes to teach gun owners how to properly store their weapon.

"If a child picks up a gun, they pick it up finger on the trigger, they’ll try if it doesn't go, they’ll try the next one, and if that gun's loaded. They’re going to fire it," said Carlson, a gun safety expert, former police and owner of Jacksonville Gunrunners.

There are three main ways to secure your firearm.

You can use a gun/trigger lock which Carlson demonstrated can be a simple padlock, which could prevent the trigger from being pulled. You can also buy a secure gun storage box or simply put the gun in a gun safe.

Under Florida law, firearms that could be accessed by a minor must be kept in a locked box, secure, or secured with a trigger lock. Violating this law is a misdemeanor offense.

But following the law isn't enough, Carlson suggests talking to children about gun safety can also prevent an accident.

"If they see a firearm in another person's house and anybody is going to pick it up or play with it or anything like that, they have to run and get help," Carlson said.