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Gun safety concerns after 2 kids bring loaded weapons to elementary schools
For the second time in a week, an elementary student has brought a gun into the school classroom, where it discharged. Access to guns is becoming a major issue. FOX 5's Julie Donaldson has more on how to keep your kids safe.
WASHINGTON - For the second time in a week, an elementary student has brought a gun into the school classroom, where it discharged.
The first incident happened on Monday at Lee Hill Elementary School in Spotsylvania and second happened Thursday at Billingsley Elementary School in Charles County.
Officials say neither student had any intention of harming anyone and, fortunately, no one was injured but it's an issue that we’ve sadly become all too familiar with.
Dig deeper:
Every six days a child dies by accidental gunshot. The students in these two incidents in our area were just eight and nine years old and they are some of the approximately 4.6 million children who live in a home with a loaded, unlocked gun.
"The access really is the problem here. The fascination, just like any curious child would be, you're going to wander off and say, What is this? Is this a toy? Is something that I've seen. It's something that I can play with, and it can wind up in a backpack, or they can bring it to school to show their friends. So I think really the primal issue that we're seeing is gun safety and having families understand the sort of the importance of that," psychiatrist Dr. Mena Mirhom said.
The parents in the case of the Lee Elementary School incident were arrested and charged with leaving their firearm out.
What you can do:
Mirhom says another important part of keeping kids safe around guns is having clear conversations with them about the dangers. And he says those conversations should start as soon as you become a gun owner, or if you're thinking of becoming one.
"This is the same way that, you know, when a very young child is in the home, you teach them about, you know, electrical safety and the stove and things like that, to be able to have very clear, age-appropriate conversations around this is something that we should never touch and if we should see it, we should tell an adult," Mirhom said.
Mirholm went on to say should your child have been exposed to a gun incident and be dealing with traumatic effects to let them know they live in a safe space and just because something terrible happened doesn't mean they are not safe.