Why no laws about guns and kids in Washington?

The deadly shooting incident at Marysville-Pilchuck High School has brought up questions about gun laws in our state. Can and should parents be held responsible when their child commits a crime using a weapon they got from home, as was the case with Jaylen Fryberg?

Right now, the way Washington state laws are written, prosecutors have to decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not they press criminal charges.

You might remember the case of Amina Bowman. She was shot and seriously injured by a 9-year-old classmate who found a legally-owned gun in his home and decided to bring it to school. The gun remained in his backpack and fired accidentally.

Jeff Campiche, attorney for the Bowman family, said it would be unfair to prosecute the child who brought the gun to school because of the failure of the school, his family, and the community to address personal issues that led up to the incident.

Campiche said it was unfortunate the owner of the weapon used was never charged with a crime.

“It wasn’t that the prosecutor didn’t try, it’s just that there’s not a statute that speaks directly to the responsibility of gun owners for harm done with their guns,” Campiche said.

After the Bowman family filed a civil suit, the gun owner did agree to pay $300,000 as part of a settlement.

The Bowman case was just the first of three shootings involving children that happened within a matter of weeks in 2012.

It was quickly followed by the case of 3-year-old Julio Segura-McIntosh, who was left alone in a car at a Tacoma gas station. He found a loaded 9 millimeter underneath the driver’s seat and fatally shot himself.

The gun was owned by the boy’s father, but it was his mother who was charged with a crime since she’s the one who left Julio alone in the car. Jahnisha McIntosh pleaded guilty to second degree manslaughter in a plea deal that required no jail time.

Just days after Julio’s death, the 3-year-old son of a Marysville police officer grabbed a gun from the glove box of the family van and killed his 7-year-old sister.

Some people argued Officer Derek Carlile was already being punished with the loss of his daughter, including Carlile’s defense attorney.

“Derek is not guilty of manslaughter. He did not act with criminal gross negligence. This was an accident,” argued Carlile’s defense attorney when the officer was charged with second degree manslaughter.

“Our job is to try and label and hold people accountable for their criminal acts, not to apportion whether or not they’ve already been punished enough,” said Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe.

The case ended up going nowhere. The jury deadlocked and when the prosecutor refiled, the case was dismissed.

The Marysville Police Department did fire Carlile over the death of his daughter. But, with the backing of the police union, Carlile was able to force the department to give him his job back.

With three back-to-back cases involving children and guns, the state Legislature did consider creating a new law to be able to hold parents criminally responsible for the violent acts of their children. But, it got a huge push-back from the National Rifle Association.

The bill ended up dying. It was never even brought up for a vote.

It is interesting to note there is at least one other state that does have a law regarding guns and children. It’s the state that has more guns than any other: Texas.

It’s only a misdemeanor, but the statute does say it is illegal to keep a gun in a place where anyone under the age of 17 might have access to it.

We did look to see if that law has ever been used to press charges against a parent in Texas. As far as we can tell, it has not.