Do you use a night stand gun around kids?

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Gunproofing your kids is not enough. The shooter in the Rocori High School incident was gunproofed.

But when he snapped (no one saw it coming), he took a .22 pistol from an unlocked dresser.
Tue, Jul. 12, 2005

Father: Gun kept in dresser

McLaughlin used pistol that was to be handed down

BY SHANNON PRATHER

Pioneer Press

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Stearns County Sheriff's Sgt. David McLaughlin said he purchased a .22-caliber Colt pistol for himself but allowed his teenage son Jason to fire the gun at a shooting range on two occasions and told the boy that one day the gun would be his.

Jason McLaughlin knew the semiautomatic pistol was kept in an antique dresser in a spare bedroom along with seven other guns, David McLaughlin testified Monday during his son's murder trial, but said he had no idea the shy high school freshman had packed it in his gym bag the morning of Sept. 24, 2003.

Hours later, David McLaughlin heard the police radio crackle with reports of a shooting at Rocori High School in Cold Spring. The 22-year law enforcement veteran responded to the call and discovered that two students had been gunned down and the suspect was his 15-year-old son.

Prosecutors from the state attorney general's office called David McLaughlin to testify about his son on the fifth day of the trial. Assistant Attorney General William Klumpp Jr. showed David McLaughlin the .22-caliber handgun.

"That was a pistol I previously owned," David McLaughlin said quietly.

Jason McLaughlin, now 16, is standing trial as an adult on charges of first- and second-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Seth Bartell, 14, and Aaron Rollins, 17, who was hit by a stray bullet. Clay County District Judge Michael Kirk, who is hearing the case because of David McLaughlin's job, will render the verdict.

Prosecutors on Monday also played a videotaped confession in which Jason McLaughlin admitted bringing the handgun to school and shooting Bartell for teasing him about his acne.

David McLaughlin looked down at his hands throughout his testimony and gave brief, often one-word answers. His wife and Jason's mother, Mary McLaughlin, watched from the first row of the gallery.

David McLaughlin said he knew his son was sensitive about "severe" acne on his face and back, but testified his son never indicated he was teased about it. Jason was on three prescription medications to treat the condition.

"It was probably more what he didn't say," David McLaughlin said. "He didn't want me to look at (the acne), and he always wore a shirt."

The father acknowledged that he kept boxes of ammunition and nearly 20 firearms, including rifles, pistols and shotguns, at his home on the south side of Cold Spring. David McLaughlin, looking at a photograph of his gun drawer with an empty space where the Colt pistol had been, said he used gunlocks. Some of the guns in the photo had gunlocks attached to them. But in September 2003, David McLaughlin testified, he was in the process of cleaning the weapons, so some remained unlocked.

David McLaughlin, a father of four, said he had no concerns about having firearms around his youngest son
, whose relationship was particularly close, the father noted. The deputy said he drove his son to a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources firearms safety course in the spring of 2003. David McLaughlin said his son appeared to be able to shoot the .22-caliber pistol accurately when they practiced at a shooting range.
 
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