Mother Sentenced for Violating Child Gun Law

In the first case involving a new law meant to keep firearms out of the hands of children, a Municipal Court commissioner Wednesday sentenced a Panorama City mother to 35 days cleaning up graffiti because her 9-year-old daughter took a pistol to school and fired a shot that narrowly missed a classmate.

Saying it was the mother’s fault that the girl found the gun, Commissioner Mitchell Block passed sentence on Gloriette Littlejohn, the first person in Los Angeles charged with violating the state Children’s Firearm Accident Prevention Act of 1991. The law provides that if a child brandishes or fires a firearm in public, an adult owner can be prosecuted for leaving the firearm where the child could get at the weapon.

Littlejohn, 37, who pleaded no contest, was sentenced to cleaning up graffiti for Caltrans, three years’ probation and must attend parenting classes. She was also ordered to pay restitution to the owner of the gun, which was stolen in February in a residential burglary in Venice. Littlejohn denied knowing that the gun was stolen, saying a friend had given it to her.

On May 4, Littlejohn’s daughter brought a .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol to Plummer School in North Hills, where she was a fourth-grader, and showed it to a 7-year-old classmate.

The pistol fired, and the bullet passed through the sleeve of the boy’s jacket, narrowly missing his arm. The girl, who later said she thought she had removed all cartridges from the gun, dropped the weapon and ran off crying.

School board officials--who in 1993 instituted a “zero tolerance” policy toward children who bring guns to school--later expelled the girl. More than 500 students have been expelled for violating the policy.

“This is a very serious type of offense and we are very fortunate that no one was injured,” said Richard Schmidt, a supervising attorney in the city attorney’s office in Van Nuys.

The girl said she had found the loaded gun in her mother’s bedroom drawer and put it in her backpack for protection against gang members who harassed her on the way to school.

Schmidt said the new law has also affected the way gun shops advise potential customers. Many of the shop owners now post signs in their store windows advising parents that they are now responsible if their children use firearms they find in their homes.

“Hopefully, this will illustrate to parents that there is a penalty for this type of incident,” Schmidt said. “And anybody who has a gun should have the civic sense and responsibility to keep their guns out of the hands of kids.”