Children and Firearm

One of the responsibility of the social worker is to make sure the home environments present no danger for the children. When you go for a home study; or, every time you arrive for one of the monthly visits, you have to check that the homes offer a suitable atmosphere for the children there. There are foods, electricity, running water, ventilation, enough room space, etc. But, the issue of safety, how do you measure that? The social worker has to make sure that there is no electrical wire exposed, no paint is peeled off  the walls, nothing is too precarious placed that it would fall on a child, no knife or anything like that or poisonous or dangerous material is at the reach of children. But what about when you see such a headline: “Florida Boy, 12, Kills Brother and Self.” Your stomach cringes.

The worse part about it, the boy had access to a firearm that he utilized to kill his younger brother, 6 years old, and his sixteen-year-old brother was shot in the leg and survived. How does a twelve-year-old get his hands on a firearm? What is the role of the custodians? What is the role of the society? Could the social worker foreseen such a danger?

Recently, there has been so much publicity about the gun issue. Several individuals, particularly young black men have been killed by others with a firearm. The perpetrators have often claimed the "stand-your-ground" law, which literally gives people who own firearms the right to kill others that they may consider threatening to them. This has brought up the argument against the much availability of weapon in the communities. Yet, our major concern at the moment is the fact that the twelve-year-old could get access to a gun and arrive to shoot his brothers with it.

The parents must beware. If you choose to own weapons, you must be ready to take responsibility for their safety in the home. Anybody who purchases a weapon, you must take charge of it. In the home, in the vehicle, it is yours and yours only; and, nobody else should be able to assume control over it. You were the one who felt that you could handle it and went out and buy it. So, don’t count on anybody else. Especially when it concerns children, there is no excuse. Children are not logically sound enough to handle weapons. They may see it as a toy. They may not know yet the level of damage it could inflict. So, it remains on you the custodians to make sure that the children never have access to weapons, particularly firearms. There have been so many instances where parents have cried because they have been careless and allowed the children access to weapons. It should not be; or, let it be no more.

The freedom to bear arms in this country is extremely liberal. No one would wish to infringe upon another’s rights. Still, this society needs to take a careful look on how this easy access to firearms is affecting certain ethnic groups. And, the social workers, there is not too much to do under such a circumstance. When you go inside the home, you check for all abnormalities. Yet, usually, the gun would not be sitting around openly. You would most likely miss it. You could pass the message, however: If you have a gun, make sure the children are not able to get to it. At the end, the whole safety concern rests with the custodians or parents. If you don’t have necessity for a gun, do not even acquire one. If you have to, make sure no child could lay hands on it. And, don’t allow people with guns to bring them near your children.

E.C. Granmoun is the author of "The Social Worker" ebook on amazon.com 
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