Parents not charged in gun case

Their son brought a loaded gun to West Zephyrhills Elementary, but prosecutors say the parents had stored the gun legally.

By CARY DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

ZEPHYRHILLS -- Prosecutors have decided not to file charges against the parents of an 11-year-old boy who brought a loaded handgun to West Zephyrhills Elementary School.

The Pasco-Pinellas State Attorney's Office concluded last week that the boy's parents had stored the handgun in a legally acceptable manner and had taken reasonable precautions to prevent their son from obtaining the weapon.

"The evidence was not there" to file charges under the state's safe gun storage law, said Assistant State Attorney Richard Mensch, the chief prosecutor in Pasco. "Apparently, they tried everything they could to store the weapon in a way where (their son) could not find it."

The boy, a fifth-grader, was arrested May 17 after a teacher checked the student's duffel bag and found a leather gun case containing a .357-caliber Magnum handgun, a speed loader containing six rounds and a box of ammunition. A fourth-grader had notified the teacher about the gun after seeing the boy show the weapon to friends.

The fifth-grader told authorities that he had taken the gun from a dresser drawer in his parents' bedroom while looking for a pair of socks. He said he knew that his father owned a gun, but he did not know where in the house it was kept until the day he found it. He was charged with possession of a weapon on school grounds. The boy's father told Zephyrhills police that he usually kept the weapon locked in the leather gun case in his bedside dresser. He said he always hid the key to the case inside a locked jewelry box.

The boy, however, said he found the key in the drawer next to the gun case.

The parents also told Zephyrhills police that they usually kept their bedroom door locked so that their son couldn't have access to the gun. But the mother told police she was in a hurry the morning the gun was taken and forgot to lock the door.

The Times is withholding the boy's name because of his age. The names of his parents also are being withheld to protect the boy's identity.

In Florida, it is a second-degree misdemeanor to leave or store a loaded firearm where a minor could reasonably gain access to it without the permission of a parent or guardian. If a minor is likely to have access to a loaded gun, the law states, it must be stored in a locked container or have a trigger lock.

Police said the gun the boy brought to school did not have a trigger lock.

The boy said he meant no harm and only brought the gun to school because he wanted to impress friends. "I thought it was neat," the boy told deputies, according to a Pasco County Sheriff's Office report.

Because the family lives outside the city limits of Zephyrhills, the investigation into how the boy got his hands on the gun was turned over to the Sheriff's Office. The Sheriff's Office then referred the case to prosecutors because, according to reports, the mother and the father refused to answer deputies' questions.

Mensch said prosecutors reviewed law enforcement reports and found nothing to suggest that the parents had broken any law.

"It was in a locked gun case in their bedroom," Mensch said. "They didn't leave it out in the open where he could find it."

The boy's parents could not be reached for comment Friday.

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