Whether Betsy DeVos thinks we need to arm ourselves against bears, or conservatives think that the answer to gun violence is more guns, one thing is for certain: Accidents and mistakes involving guns end badly. A 74-year-old substitute teacher is reportedly behind bars after a gun he was holding in his pocket went off in an Alabama first-grade classroom. Henry Rex Weaver was in a classroom at Blountsville Elementary School when the gun went off around midday on March 22. According to AL.com, there were students in the classroom, one of whom was struck by a bullet fragment. According to the reports, the child was checked out by the school nurse and released without any medical issues.
WBRC in Birmingham, Alabama, reports that Weaver was illegally carrying a concealed weapon, and charged with aggravated assault, possession of a deadly weapon, and reckless endangerment. Let’s be crystal clear about this. The least problematic thing Weaver is being charged with is his unlawful concealed firearm. If he had the legal right to carry a firearm and it went off, it would not matter one bit why it accidentally discharged. In fact, according to the Gifford Law Center, Alabama seems to allow concealed firearms in school with a license. Blount County Sheriff Mark Moon told reporters that school officials detained the substitute teacher until authorities could come and arrest him.
It’s hard to know what exactly happened or why someone might think they needed to carry a firearm into a first-grade classroom, but in any case, the results are the same. Whether it is a preschooler shooting mom by mistake in the car, or a mother accidentally shooting her child in the face when her purse drops on the floor with a gun inside, there isn’t much to say except that guns do one thing and one thing only—they shoot.