The parents of a Michigan teenager who killed 4 people and injured many others will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for providing the gun to their son. This is a completely appropriate move on the part of prosecutor Karen McDonald.
Every right we have comes with associated responsibilities, and if you, personally, are exercising a right, then you have personal responsibility regarding how you do it. For example, the right to vote comes with the responsibility of making a sincere effort to understand what you are voting for. The right to free speech comes with the responsibility to speak the truth. In most cases, the law does not force you to perform those related responsibilities, mostly because we’ve decided that it is more important to protect your rights than to enforce responsibilities. Generally, that’s the best choice.
In the case of firearm ownership, what are some responsibilities that we have?
- We have a responsibility to understand how to safely use the weapon.
- We have a responsibility to understand the ethical and legal issues surrounding use of a deadly weapon.
- We have the responsibility to participate in the common defense.
- As with other rights that grant us some kind of power, we have the responsibility to do our best to understand reality so we are not making a mistake when we use that power.
- We have a responsibility to keep that weapon out of the wrong hands.
It’s that last one that comes into play with the story of this Michigan teenager who has damaged and destroyed so many lives. His parents knew that he was troubled and knew he was not legally able to own a gun, yet they purchased one for him and then stored it in an unlocked location that was known to him. Even when he displayed clear homicidal inclination, they did nothing to keep him from that gun. Their story is particularly egregious, but this responsibility to keep your firearms out of the wrong hands is something that American gun owners are failing at every day.
First off, please make sure your guns are either on your person — where you have immediate control of them — or behind two locks. Those two locks are going to be on the door of the building (your house or apartment) and the door of a container (like a gun safe or locker). If you have a gun in your car, and it isn’t under your immediate control, it needs to be in a gun locker that is connected to the car. While only 10 to 15% of guns used in crimes had previously been reported stolen, it would still make a difference. I know a lot of people like to stage guns; as I’ve said before, that needs to change. If you need immediate access to a gun, keep it on your person.
Second, a child should not be granted unsupervised access to a deadly weapon; I mean that not only in terms of a person’s age, but also their maturity. If you’re the person deciding whether someone has access to a gun, you have the responsibility of evaluating that person yourself in terms of whether they can be trusted with the weapon. There’s this recent case in Michigan, but I’m also reminded of the Sandy Hook shooter who had his own gun safe in his bedroom. You’re not keeping the gun out of the wrong hands if that person knows the combination to the safe or knows where the key is.
There are a lot of irritating laws out there. In many cases, though, the stupid law is there because someone was an inconsiderate ass. In Wyoming, it is apparently illegal to wear a hat that obstructs people’s view in a public theater or place of amusement; undoubtedly, that’s because some asshole did just that many, many times. If you are not doing your best — which is all I ever ask — to keep your guns out of the wrong hands, you are the asshole. There’s no ambiguity on this point. It doesn’t matter if nothing ever goes wrong, you’ve still failed to meet the responsibilities that came with firearm ownership.
What we’re going to see happening when there’s a tragedy like this is that prosecutors are going to go after the irresponsible person who either failed to store their gun properly or gave it right to a person who obviously should not have had it. I expect we will also see laws to that effect, and we’re going to hear so much lamentation about these horrible laws as that happens — but the thing is that gun owners deserve it because so many of us have failed. I’d prefer that we all got to make our own decisions about these kinds of things, but people like this killer’s parents have ruined it all for everyone. Now, the government is going to get involved. Irresponsible gun owners really didn’t give them a choice but to get involved.
If you’re sitting there thinking, “How dare you tell me what I do with my guns! I will do what I want!” Well, OK, you will for now, but thanks to people who think like that, the time is coming when you won’t get to do what you want.