A 6-year-old shooter

A new year, and another tragedy, to start the letter writing anew. I chose to send this one via Senator Lauwers’ website email system. I don’t expect a response; Lauwers has just won reelection and if he felt no need to respond to a constituent during the election process, why would he do so now? Still, I write …

More shock and anguish, more thoughts and prayers, more hand-wringing. A 6-year-old pulls a gun out of his backpack in the classroom and shoots his teacher. She is wounded critically, but still manages to get the other students out of the room. Upon regaining consciousness a few days later, she asks about her students.

Abigail Zwerner sounds like a good teacher, one who cares for her students. She probably chose lower elementary because she loves children. I picture her sitting in a child’s chair, her students gathering cross-legged around her, while she reads a favorite picture book to them, stopping at every page to let everyone see the illustrations. I’m sure she, like all teachers in American schools these days, worried about a school shooting, but she never dreamed the threat would come from a student. That maybe happens in middle schools, high schools, on college campuses. But not in first grade. Well, now it does.

Why? Because an unhappy and obviously unhealthy 6-year-old boy had access to a gun. He lived in a home where a gun had been legally purchased but not stored safely. And he was able to stuff the gun into the backpack, enter the school building (because we do not currently search 6-year-old’s backpacks or require them to go through metal detectors just to go to school), and use the gun to hurt his teacher.

I have no answers for what law enforcement should do with this boy or his reckless mother, beyond find some excellent mental health professionals. But Virginia? Pass a safe storage law. And Michigan? Follow suit.

My latest to the Senator—

Dear Senator Lauwers:

I have written you numerous times expressing my belief that Michigan needs safe storage laws. While I have not received a response from you, despite being a constituent, I feel compelled to continue my one-sided correspondence. I am sure you have seen the tragic story of the first grade teacher in Virginia who was shot by her 6-year-old student. Though wounded critically, Abigail Zwerner is now conscious and asking about her students. Like all good teachers, the students are uppermost in her thoughts. She probably worried about a school shooting -- all teachers do these days -- but she no doubt believed the threat would come from the outside. How did a 6-year-old get a gun? From home. His mother legally purchased the weapon but failed to properly secure it in the home. Virginia, like Michigan, does not have a safe storage law.

Senator, this is a small ask. Safe storage laws make good common sense, and most people favor them. While you have much to do in your new term, little can be as important as moving legislature that creates a safer state for all of us.

For Ms. Zwerner, for the teachers of Michigan, for our students, for all of us: be a proponent for safe storage laws in Michigan.

Thank you,

Kathleen Tighe