Math teacher Michael Landsberry is being hailed a hero after he confronted a 12-year-old student with a gun at the Nevada middle school where he taught.  It’s reported that Landsberry asked the boy to give him the gun and was then fatally shot.  The shooter also shot two students and then took his own life with a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.  According to the Reno Journal Gazette which interviewed 13-year-old eyewitness Kyle Nucum he said he heard a “a pop, like a loud pop, and everybody was screaming.”  He continued, “The teacher fell and everybody ran away.  We ran across the field to get somewhere safe, and while we were running we heard about four or five more gunshots.”  The two boys who were shot were originally listed in critical condition but were upgraded to stable condition with non-life threatening injuries.  Although there’s no definitive motive for the shooting, another student Michelle Hernandez told the Gazette that, “I heard him saying, ‘Why you people making fun of me, why you laughing at me.”

This tragic story will undoubtedly provide more ammunition to gun control advocates despite the fact gun control would not have changed the outcome in this case. So while gun control is not the answer, control of the gun might be.  It appears that he used a sidearm owned by the father and if that’s the case, the father should be charged.  Owning firearms is absolutely a right guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.  But protecting that firearm and storing it and keeping it from others, is the law and the responsibility of the owner.  Careless firearm practices should not and can not be tolerated and should be punishable by hefty and jail time depending on the severity of the negligence.