Bill to Put Blame on Parents for Guns in Schools in Alabama Fails

As a parent, I know that I’m ultimately responsible for things my children do. At least, up to a point. My eldest is almost 23. He is legally responsible for making his own decisions, but there is some responsibility even then since at least part of the upbringing that guides him comes from me and my wife.

But children aren’t robots. While we can do our best, that’s not always good enough. There’s a reason children are, generally speaking, not permitted to make major decisions all on their own. They’re still learning, which means they’re going to make some major mistakes.

A bill in Alabama, though, wanted to punish parents for their kids should they bring guns into schools. 

Luckily, it went down in flames.

Alabama lawmakers rejected a bill on Wednesday that would impose a criminal penalty on a parent whose child brings a gun to school if the firearm was not secured at home, in contrast with a series of recent prosecutions nationwide that have targeted the parents of school shooters.

The bill’s Democratic sponsor, Rep. Barbara Drummond from Mobile, emphasized that the bill was meant to be a “pro-school” measure instead of a gun control measure.

The bill would have penalized a parent with up to a year of jail if they failed store a firearm using a trigger lock, lock box or “gun safe that requires a key, numerical or alphanumerical combination, or fingerprint to open” before their minor brought it to school.

The House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee voted against the bill along party lines.

Republicans said that they supported the intent of the bill but that it wasn’t fair to tell people where to keep their guns and put an undue burden on parents.

“My basic opposition to this particular bill is that it applies a criminal offence to someone based on another person’s actions,” Rep. Ginny Shaver of Leesburg said.

Drummond can claim this was “pro-school” all she wants, but it’s still gun control as it’s essentially a backdoor attempt at a mandatory storage law. “You don’t have to store your guns in a safe, but if you don’t…”

Yeah, it’s gun control.

Now, I get where she’s coming on this one. Kids bringing guns to school isn’t a good thing. We don’t need armed children running around our places of learning.

The problem is that kids can be sneaky. A parent can secure a gun, only to not realize the kid still knows how to access it. Combinations can be learned, keyed locks can be accessed with keys that are left on a table; nothing is fool-proof. Especially if the kid is determined to gain access to the gun.

And let’s be real here. Sometimes, kids do need access to firearms. Look at what happened in Kentucky recently, as just one example.

A measure like this might have prompted those parents to keep access from the kid who would likely have been murdered in his home, rather than successful in defending his own life.

So yeah, I’m glad this one died.

Shaver’s point is also one worthy of consideration, too. We shouldn’t punish people based on the actions of others, and that’s ultimately what this bill would do if Alabama hadn’t rejected it.

So that’s a win all around.