Florida Schools Weigh Gun-Safety Lessons to Battle Shooting Deaths

MIAMI — Hunched over slightly, Aaron Miller steadies his .22-caliber pistol and fires, blowing pea-sized holes in a target’s black bull’s-eye. The 10-year-old is probably as good a shot as any at a popular suburban shooting range.

But there is another side of the story about children and firearms, especially in Florida, where the Legislature recently made it easier for residents to buy and carry side arms.

In Dade County alone, 37 youths 18 years old and under have been fatally shot this year, 13 more than in all of 1987, the medical examiner’s office says.

Just this summer, the body of a 14-year-old boy was hidden for 10 days by three young brothers in St. Petersburg who panicked when a shotgun they were playing with accidentally discharged; a 14-year-old boy was accidentally shot to death by his older brother in the farming town of Pahokee; an 11-year-old boy shot in the head by a playmate remains hospitalized in Tampa.

3 Charged in Boy’s Death

And an 11-year-old Miami boy was shot and killed during a so-called game of “courage.” Three friends were charged with manslaughter.

Police blame the tragedies on improperly stored weapons, peer pressure, television violence and irresponsible adults. They also cite relaxed state gun laws that have increased the number of firearms in some communities.

“We’re too gun-happy,” says veteran Metro-Dade homicide Lt. Mike Gonzalez. “There are so many guns lying around in people’s homes and cars that, naturally, kids are going to get into them.”

Some children such as Aaron get gun safety instruction at home, but those killed and wounded often have little or no knowledge of firearms.

As part of a national effort, the National Rifle Assn. has proposed a program in Florida elementary schools focusing on gun safety.

Although state Education Commissioner Betty Castor has flatly rejected the idea, some school districts, including Dade County, are looking at some form of gun education.

View of Guns as ‘Cool’

Schools could help counter the feeling among many youths that guns are “cool,” said Steve Morris, an educator at a school where a Miami youth was recently slain with a handgun.

“We need to give more information on handguns--not how to use them but the dangers involved,” said Morris, assistant principal of Glades Junior High School, where seventh-grader Marcus Mayorga had just started summer school when he was killed.

“Maybe they need to see a picture of someone with their head blown up,” he suggested, acknowledging that may be too graphic. “We need to show them the final outcome . . . the anguish caused to parents and friends.”

Marcus and some friends got together July 12, unsupervised at the home of a girl who had found the gun earlier under a dresser, and they devised a Russian Roulette-style game to test each other’s courage.

The game involved distracting the “victim” while one of them unloaded the gun, Metro-Dade Detective John Butchko said.

Gun Remained Loaded

Tragically, when Marcus was playing the victim the gun remained loaded. He was killed instantly.

Three teens now face manslaughter charges and will be tried in juvenile court, Butchko said.

Deadly games of chance killed three other Miami youths--ages 14, 16 and 18--this year in separate incidents, the medical examiner’s office says.

“It’s amazing there haven’t been more cases like that,” Gonzalez said.

The problem is not unique to Florida, of course. Nationwide, 328 youths 19 years old and under were killed by firearms in 1985, the latest year for which figures are available, the Maryland-based National Center for Health Statistics says.

Gonzalez, Morris and Florida’s NRA spokeswoman, Marion Hammer, believe that television violence may have a role in encouraging children to glamorize guns and not treat them seriously.

“I think TV to a great extent is responsible because a lot of children know absolutely nothing about guns other than what they see on TV, and those are the wrong things,” Hammer said.

Many Violent Acts Viewed

The level of violence consumed by the average child appears to have increased in recent years, with more movies available on videocassette and cable television, said Dr. Thomas Redecki, research director for the private National Coalition on Television Violence. He estimated that the average child in the United States, by age 18, will witness on TV 32,000 murders, 40,000 attempted murders and 225,000 acts of violence.

The NRA is pushing for an elementary-level gun safety program that would focus on the concept of “No. Go. Tell.” That is, if a youngster sees a gun, neither to pick it up nor to get near someone handling it but to tell an adult about it.