Newport News, Virginia: A 6-year-old shot a teacher with his mother’s gun. The tragedy highlights the lack of strong secure storage laws across the nation

CNN
 — 

In the week since a six-year-old boy in Newport News, Virginia took a gun from his home, brought it to school and shot his teacher, community members and officials are grappling with an unsettling question: How did the child get access to a loaded firearm?

“There’s a lot of questions that we have to answer as a community,” Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones told CNN, including “how a 6-year-old was able to have a gun (and) know how to use it in such a deliberate manner … The individuals responsible will be held accountable. I can promise that.”

Police are seeking answers as they investigate the events leading up to the January 6 shooting at Richneck Elementary school, wounding a 25-year-old elementary school teacher identified by officials as Abigail Zwerner. While her injuries were initially described as life-threatening, Zwerner has been listed in stable condition since Saturday, according to the city’s police chief, Steve Drew.

The boy, who was taken into custody immediately after the shooting, was under a temporary detention order and was being evaluated at a hospital, police said Monday. The gun allegedly used in the shooting was legally purchased by the child’s mother, who could face charges at the end of the investigation, Drew said.

It was the first shooting at a US school in 2023, according to a CNN analysis, highlighting what some gun policy experts believe is a dire need for stronger, more consistent laws nationwide, requiring adults to safely secure their guns out of the reach of children and others unauthorized to use them. It also reveals a lack of public education on the responsibility of gun owners to store their guns unloaded, locked and away from ammunition, the experts said.

Research shows child access prevention and safe storage laws are effective in reducing shootings among youth, according to a report released on Tuesday by the RAND Corporation, a public policy research organization. The report recommends states without such laws consider adopting them to reduce gun-related suicides, homicides and unintentional injuries and death among youth.

“Unsecured guns in homes and cars are fueling our much broader and much more prevalent gun violence issue in the US,” said Cassandra Crifasi, a professor at Johns…