At about 1:30 today a young girl was shot at her grade school in East Bremerton (story in Kitsap Sun). While details are sparse, what apparently happened is that a 9-year old boy brought a gun to school and at some point the gun discharged in the classroom, striking the girl in her arm and abdomen. She's out of surgery at Harborview Medical Center and is listed in critical condition. I pray she's going to make a full recovery. I want to stress that it is unclear whether this is an intentional act or an accidental shooting.
More below the Boehner-colored squiggely thing.
But this shooting isn't the only violent goings-on in Bremerton. On my side of Washington Passage we apparently have a knife-wielding serial killer. So far two people have been stabbed to death and one was injured but recovered. What's more disturbing is that the two killings took place within blocks of the high school (link).
As a gun owner, my first thoughts are on the shooting:
How the fuck did a 9-year old obtain a handgun? I assume he got it from home (not an unreasonable assumption, but also not confirmed at this time). If he did get it from home, was it loaded when he got it, or did he load it? What was the storage situation? My gut tells me this was an easily preventable shooting had common sense gun storage been practiced. Since we don't yet know the circumstances, I won't proselytize further my views about safe firearms storage.
I live pretty close to the high school, so I'm way more concerned about the stabbings. The non-fatal attack took place rather close to my neighborhood--close enough that I don't go walking alone now. I don't have a concealed-carry permit and if I did, I doubt I'd go out exercising with a 2-pound Beretta under my arm. It would just seem weird to me. So I can forget walking until someone either arrests or terminally ventilates our serial killer.
So on the one hand we have an accidental shooting where unsafe storage practices may have come into play, and on the other we have some nut with a knife attacking defenseless people. It puts a gun owner in something of a pickle. Leave the guns locked up to prevent accidents, or alter normally safe storage practices to deal with the possibly higher risk of a break-in? I've got two really enthusiastic boxers so I don't worry much about being surprised in a break-in (I also have a quick access safe). But still, the situation presents a dilemma.
The first stabbing occurred about 8 months ago, and the last fatal stabbing occurred less than two weeks ago. Needless to say the murders have been on people's minds for some time now, and the notion that it may be a serial killer makes events even more disturbing. I hope people don't make unreasonable tradeoffs between safety and security.
UPDATE: It appears the boy got the gun from his mother's house during visitation (link). The gun was a .45 auto and it accidentally discharged from inside the boy's backpack. The girl is going to have more surgeries.
Secure storage, people. I don't have much sympathy for whatever legal Hell may be coming in the direction of this kid's parents (mom for the storage issue and possibly dad for not being more cognizant of the contents of his kid's luggage).
This was oh, so preventable. No word on what might have motivated the kid to take a gun to school.