Father of boy who shot friend gets 3 yrs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Father of boy who shot friend gets 3 yrs
186
Sun, 07-18-2004 - 1:21pm

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Child%20Shot%20Sentence


Saturday, July 17, 2004 · Last updated 8:28 p.m. PT


Father of boy who shot friend gets 3 years


THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The father of a boy who shot and killed a playmate with a loaded gun he found stashed under a sofa was sentenced to nearly three years in prison, followed by probation during which he must speak monthly on gun safety.


Louis Mevec Sr. was sentenced Friday for felony culpable negligence in the 2003 death of Sean Caroline II. Mevec, who owned the .357-caliber Magnum used to kill the 12-year-old friend of his son Louis, was convicted last month.


During his father's trial, 14-year-old Louis testified that a small group of Largo Middle School students had skipped school and were playing video games at Mevec's apartment when he pointed the gun at Sean and shot him between the eyes.


"I blame you and only you for my son's death," Sean Caroline, Sean's father, told Louis Mevec Sr. in court Friday. "My wife and I are also serving a sentence ... but we got no trial. Ours is a life sentence."


Circuit Judge Brandt Downey sentenced Mevec, 53, to the maximum six-year prison term, but suspended more than half of it and replaced it with probation. His remaining sentence is 34 months, but with good behavior he could be released by late 2006.


The Caroline family had asked that Mevec be required to speak on gun safety after his release.


The younger Louis Mevec was sent to a juvenile facility and is now living in New York with his mother and younger brother.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:20pm
"however, I can reduce the risk by keeping her as far away from guns as possible. "

I wasn't questioning the decision, hope it didn't appear that way. I personally wouldn't automatically outlaw going over a friend's house just because they own guns but I would make sure I know the people well and how they take care of their guns. I certainly understand your decision and your reasons.

"Every time I've asked someone why they've bought a gun, their response has been 'for protection'.

Probably is one reason.

"I keep hearing "gun advocates" telling others how guns 'protect' them and their families. "

They can and do.


"I don't know why, but so many people seem to be convinced that they must have guns for their own protection. "

Still not sure this is right. Everyone I know who owns a weapon and I would hazzard a guess and say it is a higher number than you do, own guns for protection but it isn't the sole reason for owning the guns.

" understand the knowledge that is necessary to reduce the risk of accidents happening...most of the American population that owns guns does not. They've been 'scared into' buying a gun. "

I think most people do know how to own and care for a gun. If most people didn't these accidents would be much more common. I don't think people are scared into owning a gun, some may be but "most"? No way.

"They're worse...take my word for it...goofy doesn't even scratch the surface."

I do.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:34pm

"Didn't cause it either."


Gun + boy= boy

 


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Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:48pm
I agree with you. I would never knowingly allow my child to be in a house where I know there is a gun. The exception being my brother who is a Police Officer. I also have a problem with the whole "protection" issue. Unless you deal with unsavory people or business or live in a "bad" neighborhood, what are you protecting yourself from? Random crime happens, we just had a shooting a few miles from my home that killed a friend of my daughters' and criticly injured his Mom. Nothing was going to save them from this unless they had been armed and expected someone to shoot them while they were setting up for a garage sale. I don't know where this 16y/o kid got the gun from and I don't know that we will get to the bottom of what happened but we need better contol over hand guns, there has to be a way, other countries do it why can't we? This shooting would not have happened if guns were not so easy to get to begin with.JMO
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 12:52pm
Your formula is wrong:

"Gun + boy= boy shot with gun= dead boy."

It should be:

Gun + boy + lack of supervision + irresponsible adult = boy shot with gun= dead boy

"Drano doesn't extice someone to drink it"

And yet we developed "Mr Yuck" stickers, and cabinet locks, and childproof lids. Children are curious it doesn't have to be shiny or a gun to entice.

"These kids that find guns are influenced by what they've seen in movies ect. to point & shoot. "

A. A child shouldn't be that unsupervised.

B. A child that young and easily influenced shouldn't be watching those types of movies.

A + B = It isn't the gun's fault. It is the owner. As long as everyone is willing to accept that guns and their ownership are not the problem we have no debate. It is the owner, nothing but the owner.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 1:12pm
Your opinion is understandable but uninformed.

I understand the idea that "if we could just get rid of guns" or tightly control who gets them we could stop the violence. Unfortunately it isn't possible. You'll never control the criminal element and by disarming the populous you give more power to the criminal element of our society.


Gun control laws equal increases in crime. It isnt a coincidence. These other countries you mention might they be Great Britain, Australia, South Africa, or France? You could even throw in Washington DC which has basically outlaws private ownership of firearms. In every case where private gun ownership is greatly restricted or outlawed crime has risen and gun related crime has gone up as well. DC has among the highest per capita murder rates in the nation?

Emotionally it is appealing to "outlaw" guns but logically it makes no sense.

Take for example this anectodtal comparison of the US and Britain.

Hot burglaries (burglaries that occur when the house is occupied) are much MUCH higher in Britain than in the US. They have risen signigicantly since Britain outlawed gun ownership. Do you know why it is low in the US? Because the criminal isn't sure that the home owner is unarmed. They are worried they'll run into an owner who is legally allowed to defend their home with deadly force.

Gun control laws do not work, that is the bottom line. PRivate ownership and right to carry laws actually lower crime.

Here is just one article of 100s:

http://www.capmag.com/article.asp?id=2097

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 1:29pm

"They have risen signigicantly since Britain outlawed gun ownership."


When would that be?

cl-Libraone~

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 1:40pm
"Every time I've asked someone why they've bought a gun, their response has been 'for protection'. "

There are lots of reasons people own guns: collecting, hunting, sport (skeet shooting, belonging to a gun club) and sometimes (usually included with these other things) protection.

I think the fact that kids get a hold of guns from their own or a friends house is appalling. I grew up with guns in the house. Collectively, between my mother and father, our house was home to 3 shotguns, a muzzle loader and a .45 pistol. NONE of which were ever in any sort of locked cabinet. They were stored under the bed or in my parents closet. Of course, my dad made it undeniably clear to me the rules of gun safety, and if he were to find out that I even THOUGHT about touching one of his guns without his supervision I wouldn't be able sit for months because he would have beaten my tail that badly.

We have a gun in our home, an old British 303 that was a gift to my husband from a friend who's a collector. I also have 2 small children (2 & 3). Pieces of the gun (gun itself, clip, bolt and bullets) are kept in total of four different locations, all of which are secure. When my children are old enough to process more than "don't touch Daddy's gun" my husband will teach them more about gun safety. He was a Marine and I was raised in a hunting family, with experience with guns myself. Between the two of us, gun safety is second nature.

In fact, I am more worried about my kids "springing the coup" when playing outside and getting out of the gate, into the street and getting hit by a car than I am with them getting hurt by the gun in our home. I have control over more factors with the gun, such as my kids not knowing where all the "parts" to it are and teaching them that it is not something that they are allowed to touch than I do over the jerk teenagers who speed down my quiet side street at 50 mph and my kids somehow being in the way of them.

I agree with Vader on this. If that kids father had been responsible with his gun and attentive enough to know what those kids were doing while at his house, the situation would have never happened.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 1:43pm
"On February 1, 1998, after a century of the incremental implementation of increasingly harsh restrictive laws, private ownership of all handguns was outlawed under what was labeled by many as some of "the toughest gun control laws in the world." Despite them--and perhaps because of them--guns have been flooding into Great Britain from the international black market, driven and funded by the demands of Britain's rapidly developing criminal gun-culture."

"Now that private handgun ownership is outlawed in Great Britain, and lawful possession of long guns is severely restricted..."

"The ban tightens what was already one of the world's strictest gun laws. It took effect in July, but a grace period for the handover was extended until the end of this month.

The new law bans the possession of all handguns of .22 caliber and above and those able to fire more than one shot at a time."

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-01-2004
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 1:54pm
>"They have risen signigicantly since Britain outlawed gun ownership."

When would that be?<

In 1997 Britain banned all hand guns above a .22 caliber (which, if you've never shot a .22, reminds me a lot of a bee-bee gun....we used them to hunt small game like rabbit and squirell). Article: http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9709/30/britain.aus.gunban/

And according to Britain governmental figures, gun crime has risen 35 percent since that time. Article: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30564




Edited 7/21/2004 1:56 pm ET ET by spiegdon

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 07-21-2004 - 1:57pm
I am not uninformed I just see this different than you. I think how people view guns and gun ownership has to do with how we are raised. Guns have never been a part of my life. My parents never owned guns. When my brothers were in the military they did aquire guns but were not allowed to bring them in my parents home until all other children had moved out. Personally I have no use for guns, my DH does not hunt, he has talked about buying one on occasion but I have made it clear that with 2 boys at home and friends running in at out there will NEVER be a gun in my home. If he had owned them when we met then our relationship would have been brief to be sure. I do not condemn anyone their right to ownership but I do hope that more "accidental" shootings such as the one in the OP or the deliberate one that took the life of my daughters' friend have the same results for the owner of the gun, even if the gun is stolen, I hope whoever it is regestered to is punished.

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