Parent Liability for Their Children’s Gun-Related Accidents and Crimes

Parent’s Liability When Children Find Their Guns

Two children have recently died and one has been injured in Harris County, Texas. All three incidences happened in a four day period last week. A three year old and four year old both accidentally shot themselves with a gun found at their home, and a five year old critically injured his six year old brother with a gun found as well.

On average, between 2007 and 2011, 62 kids per year have died from gun related mishaps like the incidences above. After three tragedies in just four days, Houston authorities have urged parents to lock their firearms in a safe and inaccessible place to children.

Are Parents Responsible?

In Texas, residents do not need a permit to purchase a gun, a registration of firearms, or a licensing of ownership in order to own a gun. It’s common sense to keep a gun out of reach to children in the home, but clearly a lot of parents fail to recognize this basic safety precaution.

Texas has Child Access Prevention (CAP) laws that are specific to kids and guns. Depending on the circumstance, parents can be penalized with a prison sentence or a fine when their children get a hold of a gun in the home.

Texas imposes criminal liability on parents who allow their child access to a gun and do not store the gun safely. But, parents are not held responsible if the gun was in a locked container.

The three children’s parents will most likely not be prosecuted. But when a child (most likely a teenager) steals a gun from the home and shoots people in a public place (usually schools) the parents are much more likely to be held criminally liable.