Locking 'em up might deter a 6 year old. But 9 or 12 years olds can often figure out how to get them out anyway. The only answer is education. A 6 year old is not too young to teach both the Eddie Eagle message, and some safe gun handling rules for when their is an adult in attendence. They even make a couple of little bitty .22 rifles sized for kids that young.
That will work with normal children. From the sounds of this incident, Caleb has a lot more than issues and the message would be wasted on him. Sounds like Caleb needs a lot of time spent in a residential unit lock down ward. If I were his sister I would refuse to go home with him in the house.
This is not about guns being locked or unlocked. This kid is in need of serious help. Notice how they make excuses for him, such as " He is acting out his anger right now " in reference to his father being gone. Why would you shoot your sister because your father walks out. This kid knew what he was doing. Locked up or not, he would have used something else to try to kill his sister. A knife doesn't jam and would have worked quite well for that purpose. He might figure that out next time. By the way, guns in my parents house were never locked up but we knew better than to touch them without supervision. I keep all my ammo locked up, but only because I don't trust other people and their children. Mine our grown now and never thought about shooting anyone. It is a social problem not a gun problem. Little serial killer developing here.
Agree, and I bet little Caleb had already shown some warning signs that he's got a screw loose.
No, but it sounds like this particular 6-year old, with a little gun training, might have killed his sister....and still had no remorse.