JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Five children younger than 12 died in Alaska between 2014 and 2016 after accidentally shooting themselves or being shot by another child, according to an analysis by The Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network.
One of those cases, in which a 3-year-old boy died in Anchorage, resulted in an adult pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide.
Alaska does not have laws that specifically penalize allowing children access to firearms, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, an advocacy group.
Clint Campion, the Anchorage district attorney, said each case has to be evaluated for prosecution on its own facts and circumstances.
For example, how long was the gun left in a child’s presence? Were efforts made to secure the gun? How old are the children involved and did they receive any instruction from their parents to stay away from the firearm?
“There are a lot of dynamics in any home or any family that are going to be important to evaluate to determine whether or not a parent or guardian is going to be held criminally responsible,” Campion said.
He said he could not speak to any moral responsibility or civil negligence that might apply.
Campion’s office pursued charges against Elizabeth Morin in the 2015 death of her 3-year-old son. Prosecutors alleged that Morin had left an unsecured, loaded revolver for several days in a part of the home where the boy spent time.
Morin pleaded guilty to criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced in February to 18 months in jail, with 15 months suspended, Campion’s office said.
Campion said Morin was remorseful when she realized her son had shot himself and that she suffered a great deal of trauma.
“But the goal, from my perspective, is to send a message to the community that if you’re not responsible with firearms and there are injuries or death that you could be held criminally responsible,” he said.
A message left with Morin’s attorney wasn’t returned.
The AP and USA TODAY Network analyzed data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, an online archive of incidents of gun violence. That analysis found three other cases in 2015 involved children fatally shooting themselves or another child in Alaska.
-In Shungnak, a 7-year-old boy and other children were playing unsupervised in a home when they found a pistol they thought was a toy. The boy was fatally struck when the pistol was fired.
-In Ambler, an 8-year-old boy was shot while playing with other children after they found a gun in a shed and did not know it was loaded.
-In Bethel, the 4-year-old son of an Alaska State Trooper was playing alone at home when he got hold of a firearm and shot himself. Alaska State Troopers have said the boy’s father was not at home at the time. Two adults and two other children were in the home but not in the room when the privately owned gun fired, troopers have said.
Additionally, last year, a 5-year-old in Kokhanok, in southwest Alaska, was shot by an older child who found a gun in what was considered an accident.
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