Children & Guns: Should Parents Be Held Legally Responsible For A Child's Gunfire?

It may be a gun owner's worst nightmare. A child in your home finds a gun, picks it up, and to your eternal regret, fires it out of anger or carelessness or ignorance. The issue of access to guns by minors and the question of whether parents or guardians should be held legally responsible took on added urgency this month when 16-year-old Bryan Oliver obtained his brother's shotgun, filled his pockets with shotgun shells, carried the gun into a classroom at Taft High School and began firing.