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On Christmas day, Tina Richards will wear a black T-shirt. She knows the shirt all too well. It has a photo of her youngest son, Chase.
This will be the fifth Christmas that Chase has missed. The 16-year-old Wayne High School sophomore who wanted to join the U.S. Air Force when he graduated was killed in an accidental shooting five years ago.
Richards said she would sleep better at night if other parents didn’t have to experience the same loss.
“It’s the worst thing you could ever feel,” she said.
This year, Fort Wayne police have been called to 18 reported accidental shootings. That’s up from 10 calls in 2008 and surpasses the city’s average of about 10 per year, according to police statistics.
The ’09 statistics include a case involving a Fort Wayne mother who was charged with neglect of a dependent after her 2-year-old son shot his 1-year-old brother in the face with a gun. That toddler suffered serious injuries but survived. The mother told police she had the gun at her home for safety purposes.
In a separate case, a 51-year-old man accidentally shot himself in the leg – while cleaning a gun – and hit a major artery. He died of blood loss.
The man who shot Chase, Christopher Lawrence, was sentenced to nine years in prison. Lawrence, who was 21 at the time, told police he didn’t know the gun had a bullet in it when he pointed it at Chase’s head. That’s not an excuse, Richards said.
“You don’t just point a gun at someone,” she said.
Local gun safety educators agree.
“That’s what you always hear – it just went off,” said Mark vanBurk, president of H&H Firearms. “No, it didn’t. You pulled the trigger.”
Each month, vanBurk’s store in Fort Wayne sells guns to more than 100 new owners, and over the last three years, sales have increased by 100 percent annually. He attributes that increase to people fearing for their safety and political turmoil.
“You have a lot of first-time gun owners. All walks of life now are buying guns,” he said. “People have just decided to empower themselves for their own protection.”
Fort Wayne police Deputy Chief Karl Niblick,, who oversees the department’s Detective Bureau, said that without extensively analyzing the data, it’s hard to pinpoint the reason for the increase in accidental shootings this year.
Of the 18 reported accidental shootings this year, 12 happened while gun owners were cleaning their weapons. The others include attempted suicides and cases in which people accidentally shot themselves while intoxicated, Niblick said.
“A number of those may not be accidental,” he added. “Some of them, you have people that are involved criminally and don’t want to report it, so they are reported as an accidental shooting.”
In an effort to reduce accidental deaths and injuries, H&H offers a free gun-safety program in conjunction with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The program is taught by Lt. Dean Jenkins, 2nd District commander for Indiana conservation officers. Since Jenkins started teaching at H&H about 1 1/2 years ago, nearly 100 people have taken the course.
In the four-hour course, which is not required under Indiana law, Jenkins covers a variety of gun-related topics – such as how to obtain a firearm and register the weapon, about gun parts, and how the weapon works.
After covering some basics, Jenkins turns to a slide presentation with a photo of a woman’s thumb blown off. Class participants cringe, but as Jenkins explains, this gun injury is minor compared to what can happen.
In the back of the classroom, he has displayed newspaper clippings: stories of people injured by reckless use of guns.
“I’ve seen too many dead kids and too many dead adults just from a simple lack of knowledge,” he said.
Tina Richards found some closure, knowing the man who killed her son was punished for his actions. Lawrence was given four years in prison for the killing and an additional five years for use of a firearm. But a nine-year prison sentence didn’t equal justice in this Fort Wayne mother’s mind.
Criminal charges vary by case, Allen County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Michael McAlexander said. If prosecutors can determine someone intentionally pulled the trigger of a weapon, even if that person claims the gun was not loaded, it can warrant a felony reckless homicide charge punishable by up to eight years in prison. Other times, an accident may really be an accident – with no intent to harm, he said.
“It really depends on whether we see if it rises to that level of criminal culpability – that they should have known better,” he said. “When you carry a weapon, you are taking on that responsibility … just as when you get behind the vehicle of the car, you are potentially driving a 2,000-pound weapon.”
Accidental gunshot deaths often happen among children and teenagers, according to Dick Alfeld, chief investigator for the Allen County Coroner’s Office. In his 15 years as a coroner’s investigator, Alfeld estimates he has seen at least four children accidentally shot to death by other children. Other times, children have accidentally shot themselves with weapons.
“You tend to remember those cases,” Alfeld said. “It’s not real prevalent, but it does happen. It’s enough to make you concerned.”
According to figures kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the last 10 years, one to two people on average have died each year in Allen County as a result of accidental shootings.
Jared Richards was 18 when his brother was killed. Now 23, he has two sons of his own and sees firsthand the importance of teaching gun safety to his boys.
Two-year-old Kaleb is already being taught not to point a gun at anyone – even a toy gun. As the boys get older, Jared Richards will teach them what to do if they ever come across a gun – stay away from it, and get out of that situation, he said.
“You need to talk about it,” Tina Richards said. “Talking does help. Start teaching children at a young age about the dangers of guns.”
The Richards family has learned ways to honor Chase’s memory, from photos of Chase displayed in the car – to the tattoos on his older brother’s arms. Jared Richards is reminded of his brother every time he looks at his youngest son.
Jayce, 18 months, is named after the uncle he never met.
