Monday, April 26, 2004 | 10:59 a.m.
Nevada is one of 18 states that has a law to punish gun owners when children find their unsecured weapons and use them to either threaten or shoot someone.
But a leading national expert on so-called Child Access Prevention laws says "Nevada's CAP law is one of the weakest" and that authorities might be better off applying similar but sterner laws against offenders.
Authorities have not decided whether to charge any adults in connection with three incidents of children shooting children between March 29 and Wednesday -- two resulting in fatalities. The only arrest has been of 15-year-old Jake Reeder, who is charged in the shooting Wednesday of his best friend, 14-year-old Dustin Osborn.
Reeder is facing possible involuntary manslaughter charges, but police have not ruled out that the shooting was an accident. District Attorney David Roger declined to comment on whether child endangerment or CAP law charges are pending against the gun's registered owner.
Other recent incidents of kids using guns were on March 29, when 14-year-old Erica Mendoza was accidentally killed when her 15-year-old brother shot her in the head in their east side apartment, and on April 4, when a 13-year-old northeast Las Vegas boy was shot in the stomach by a friend and survived.
Metro Police Homicide Lt. Tom Monahan said just because no adults have been arrested in the recent child-shooting incidents does not mean that the gun owners are free and clear.
"Absent of clear-cut criminal culpability or other outrageous circumstances, an arrest typically is not immediately made," Monahan said. "It is more typical that a careful investigation is conducted and that the findings are submitted to the district attorney to determine charges."
Local officials say they do not rely on the state's child access prevention law if an incident of irresponsible gun ownership is found to be so egregious to warrant felony charges.
Nevada's child access protection law makes it just a misdemeanor for an adult to leave a gun lying around and accessible to children, Luis Tolley, director of state legislation affairs for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence in Los Angeles, says. And there are a number of exceptions in the measure as well, he said.
Local prosecutors say they would rather use the child endangerment law -- a felony -- to prosecute irresponsible gun owners.
Child endangerment is punishable by two to 20 years in prison, compared with a misdemeanor, which is up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.
Still, charging parents with such a crime when their children get hold of their guns and a fatality occurs is not easy, Roger said.
"It is difficult to prosecute parents," he said. "Critics would say that parents have suffered a tremendous tragedy losing a child and that the criminal justice system should not be compounding that."
Roger declined to specifically discuss the three recent incidents because they still are in stages where potential criminal legal action is being considered.
Roger and Monahan said regardless of whether charges are filed against gun owners in any of the recent shootings, they believe the laws currently on the books are sufficient to arrest and prosecute gun owners in incidents involving children -- when circumstances call for it.
"I believe the current laws are adequate," Monahan said. "You cannot predict every possible circumstance and craft a law for each of those circumstances."
Nevada's CAP law says "a child under the age of 18 years shall not handle or have in his possession ... (a firearm), except while accompanied by ... his parent or guardian or an adult ... authorized by his parent or guardian to have control or custody of the child."
Exceptions to the law, however, include firearms taken from a securely locked container; guns taken during an act of unlawful entry; injury or death resulting from target shooting, sport shooting or a hunting accident; or if the child is given a firearm by a member of the military or a law enforcement officer while they are performing their official duties.
The other 15 states that have similar laws are Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
Tolley said there is no one model child access prevention law so the penalties range from infractions to misdemeanors to felonies depending on the state.
As a result, while California, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey can charge gun owners with a felony if a youth seriously injures or kills someone, Maryland, like New Hampshire, allows just a $1,000 fine for such offenses.
And Virginia and Wisconsin have clauses requiring prosecutors to prove that the act of leaving a gun lying around was done "recklessly," thus making it difficult to convict gun owners of misdemeanor charges, Tolley said.
"We would like to see Nevada's CAP law stronger because it really has no teeth," Tolley said. "There are a lot of exceptions, especially in cases where kids use guns for hunting and sport."
While Tolley said his organization would encourage Nevada to strengthen its CAP laws, it is much more difficult now to get CAPs passed than it was in the 1990s.
"All of the CAP laws that were enacted, except for one, were passed in the late 1980s and in the 1990s when the National Rifle Association either remained neutral or supported CAP laws such as the one in California," Tolley said.
"Now, the NRA opposes CAP laws in every state where we are trying to get them passed. We are working to get a CAP law in Pennsylvania but that has been difficult. The NRA views these laws as one more step toward taking their guns away. We view them as encouraging people to secure their weapons."
Assemblyman John Lee, D-Nev., chairman of the Clark County Regional Shooting Range Committee and a member of the NRA, said teaching children gun safety is another way to prevent accidental shootings.
"Too many times adults just say 'don't touch' without giving children proper training, and the children just want to experiment and see the reaction (of gunfire)," Lee said. "It begins with parental responsibility.
"I would be in favor of increasing the (CAP law) penalty for adult negligence," he said.
Lee said instructors at a proposed regional shooting range would teach children about gun safety in a classroom setting and again in practical use on the range.
He noted that other organizations also can teach children with demonstrations. One was this past weekend at the Boulder Dam Area Boy Scout Expo at Lorenzi Park. Before 400 scouts a demonstrator loaded a blank into a pistol and fired at an empty soda can 10 feet away, "destroying the can," Lee said.
archive
