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Accidental Shooting Prompts Questions Over Virginia's Gun Laws

The death of a 4-year old in Orange County is sparking a new discussion about gun safety. Michael Pope has the story.

Virginia is one of 21 states where people can be prosecuted for negligent storage of guns. And that’s the law that authorities in Orange are using to prosecute a Stafford sheriff’s recruit for leaving a gun in a place where a 4-year-old was able to get it and accidentally kill himself. But William Pelfrey at Virginia Commonwealth University says Virginia has passive laws rather than active laws. He says states like Connecticut and Massachusetts require gun owners to take active steps to keep guns out of the hands of children.

“Lock them up, keep trigger guards on them, keep ammunition in a locked place. Those kinds of things. Then child access and subsequent deaths or injuries from child access to firearms would be dramatically prevented.”

Phillip Van Cleave at the Virginia Citizens Defense League says it’s a mistake to actively take away people’s rights.

"Somebody could yell fire in a movie theater to incite a riot. But we don’t tape everybody’s mouth shut as they go into a theater to make sure they can’t yell fire in case they want to do something like that.”

Van Cleve says the laws in this case are working the way they’re supposed to. The adults who had supervision at the time are being charged with reckless handling and endangering the lives of children.

This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.