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Shooting accident prompts gun safety lectures(CT)
Josey1
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Shooting accident prompts gun safety lectures
By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
June 23, 2002
NORWALK -- Basketball practice held at the Nathaniel Ely School gymnasium yesterday afternoon wasn't all about jump shots, layups and fakes.
Practice for the kids, ages 10 to 18, was cut short when about 45 of them gathered around two city police officers who had dropped by to warn about them what to do if and when they find a gun.
"Do not put your hands on it," said Norwalk community police Officer Cesar Ramirez. "Call the police or an adult nearby to make a call to us. At no time at all will you put your hands on the gun. It may be loaded."
Ramirez's stern admonishment to the group came two days after a South Norwalk teenage boy flashed a .38 caliber handgun at his best friend and accidentally shot him the head.
Michael Vlicky, 13, was in fair condition yesterday evening at Yale-New Haven Hospital after two days on the critical list, following the shooting accident early Thursday evening.
The 14-year-old alleged shooter, whose name is being withheld by The Advocate pending a judge's decision on whether to try him as an adult, was arrested and released on bond after his arraignment Friday.
"You're doing basketball. That's good," community police Officer Pete White told the group. "You don't want to mess with anything that could get you in trouble or hurt your friend."
GoodFellas Summer basketball League President Freberick Franklin said he asked police to speak to the kids because teen accused of shooting Vlicky plays in the league.
"Guns are special to kids today. They think they will make them cool, make them popular, make them the man," Franklin said.
"He's a quiet boy. He doesn't say nothing to nobody. He doesn't start trouble. He minds his own business and keeps to himself," Franklin said of the boy who allegedly shot Vlicky.
"I thought it was pretty sad," said Keith Williams, 13, who played basketball with the boy arrested for the shooting. "We are all friends. They should have just put it away and left it alone."
De Travis, also 13, who went to school with Vlicky and the victim at Ponus Ridge Middle School, said, "It's a little sad because at Ponus we were all good friends. They shouldn't be playing with guns."
Copyright c 2002, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-gunsafety5jun23.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
By John Nickerson
Staff Writer
June 23, 2002
NORWALK -- Basketball practice held at the Nathaniel Ely School gymnasium yesterday afternoon wasn't all about jump shots, layups and fakes.
Practice for the kids, ages 10 to 18, was cut short when about 45 of them gathered around two city police officers who had dropped by to warn about them what to do if and when they find a gun.
"Do not put your hands on it," said Norwalk community police Officer Cesar Ramirez. "Call the police or an adult nearby to make a call to us. At no time at all will you put your hands on the gun. It may be loaded."
Ramirez's stern admonishment to the group came two days after a South Norwalk teenage boy flashed a .38 caliber handgun at his best friend and accidentally shot him the head.
Michael Vlicky, 13, was in fair condition yesterday evening at Yale-New Haven Hospital after two days on the critical list, following the shooting accident early Thursday evening.
The 14-year-old alleged shooter, whose name is being withheld by The Advocate pending a judge's decision on whether to try him as an adult, was arrested and released on bond after his arraignment Friday.
"You're doing basketball. That's good," community police Officer Pete White told the group. "You don't want to mess with anything that could get you in trouble or hurt your friend."
GoodFellas Summer basketball League President Freberick Franklin said he asked police to speak to the kids because teen accused of shooting Vlicky plays in the league.
"Guns are special to kids today. They think they will make them cool, make them popular, make them the man," Franklin said.
"He's a quiet boy. He doesn't say nothing to nobody. He doesn't start trouble. He minds his own business and keeps to himself," Franklin said of the boy who allegedly shot Vlicky.
"I thought it was pretty sad," said Keith Williams, 13, who played basketball with the boy arrested for the shooting. "We are all friends. They should have just put it away and left it alone."
De Travis, also 13, who went to school with Vlicky and the victim at Ponus Ridge Middle School, said, "It's a little sad because at Ponus we were all good friends. They shouldn't be playing with guns."
Copyright c 2002, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-gunsafety5jun23.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
Comments
Eagle Staff Report
The College Station Police Department and the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum will host a gun safety course for children in pre-kindergarten through the sixth grade.
Classes for children in pre-kindergarten through second grade will be July 2 and 18. Third- through sixth-grade classes are July 11 and 25. All classes run from 10 until 11 a.m.
The sessions are free, but class sizes are limited to 25 children, so reservations are required. Spaces can be reserved by calling 260-9552.
http://www.theeagle.com/region/localregional/062202gunsafetycourses.htm
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878
A doctor said deaths like those of Laquetta Lynn Dixon are entirely preventable.
By SHAWN LEDINGTON
Daily Record staff
The unintentional shooting death of 17-year-old Laquetta Lynn Dixon has gun safety activists trying to spread their message, again.
They say teaching children and adolescents about the proper use of a gun is essential, like saying no to drugs and drinking and driving.
"It's an important part of parenting - just as important as poison control and wearing bike helmets," said Beth Gill-MacDonald, the executive director of Healthy York County Coalition who helps head the coalition's gun safety task force.
Ramon Rosario Jr., 17, of the 600 block of West Princess Street, has been charged with criminal homicide. The two friends were reportedly joking around with guns June 17 when Rosario unintentionally fired at Dixon (whose name has been spelled "Dickson" by police). She died of one gunshot to the head.
Dixon's mother, Laverne Beasley of Lancaster, said she taught her daughter about gun safety. She said guns were always strewn around the York home where Rosario lives with his grandmother. She has mixed feelings on whether the shooting was unintentional as police stated.
"It was a rifle," she said. "You have to cock it before you fire it."
It will be up to a jury or judge to decide whether the shooting was unintentional.
Such gunshot injuries and deaths are avoidable, said York Hospital Trauma surgeon Keith Clancy.
Clancy, who is medical director of trauma services at the hospital, said "injuries caused by role-playing are almost always entirely preventable."
Gun safes. Gun locks. Storing ammunition separately from firearms. Those are measures Clancy recommends.
"Out of sight, out of mind," he said.
According to the Healthy York County Coalition's 2000 Health Assessment Survey for Adams and York counties, 46 percent of the households surveyed in York County had at least one gun in the home. This was higher than the national average of 36 percent, according to the report.
There are many mechanisms in place that allow for safety and quick retrieval for protection purposes, Clancy said.
Darwin Doll of Springettsbury Township, local National Rifle Association member, said "there is a real lack of gun education safety in the York and York County areas."
Doll, also a member of the coalition's gun safety task force, said local officials have been trying to get York County schools to open their doors to Eddie Eagle, the NRA's gun safety education program for pre-kindergarten students to sixth grade.
"With no real response," he added. "As soon as you mention the word gun to any of the schools, they close up." The only school Eddie Eagle has been taught in is the Christian School of York, he said. The NRA is in communication now with the Dover school district.
Doll said conversation about guns is essential.
"Today, you need to talk about it," he said.
Reaching adolescents, though, is harder. The best way to reach teen-agers is through parents, Doll said.
"Everything is no, no, no," he said. "It's time for yes, yes, yes. You've got to sit down and talk about it. Let your child hold a firearm.
"The curiosity of the child is never satisfied just by telling them no," he said.
But much of the gun use in York is being done by teen-agers who don't have the right to even possess these weapons, said York Police Chief Michael Hill.
He said too many young people in the city watch too much television and believe that after they get shot, they can get back up.
Any organization or neighborhood association can request a gun safety program be taught in any area of York County, said Ken Woerthwein, a physician who heads the coalition's gun safety task force made up of health professionals, gun owners and social service agencies.
"We encourage gun safety education for the public," Woerthwein said.
"Children are watching - lock up your guns," he said, quoting the task force's motto.
Reach Shawn Ledington at 771-2048 or sledington@ydr.com.
http://www.ydr.com/main/news/1main2020624.shtml
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878