<\/p>\n
![\"Photo\"](\"http:\/\/multimedia.heraldinteractive.com\/images\/20100812\/99d76f_graham08122010.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMayor Menino, who are you going to blame now?<\/p>\n
When 8-year-old Liquarry Jefferson was shot and killed by his 7-year-old cousin, Mayor Tom Menino went to their Dorchester home and \u201coffered support to both families,\u201d as he told the press.<\/p>\n
And why wouldn\u2019t he? He certainly didn\u2019t think it was the mother\u2019s fault that the two boys and Liquarry\u2019s 2-year-old half-sister were upstairs playing with a pistol – unattended – at 11 p.m.<\/p>\n
Instead, Menino claimed the National Rifle Association was partially to blame. \u201cWhy is that gun in the house?\u201d Menino asked. Because the NRA opposed tougher gun control laws, that\u2019s why, he concluded.<\/p>\n
Fast forward three years after that terrible accident. Liquarry\u2019s mom, Lakeisha Gadson, was on trial for violating some of the gun control laws that the NRA somehow let slip through the legislative process. Gadson was charged with unlawful possession of a gun and the improper storage of same, as well as the charges of child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Charged – and acquitted. The jury exonerated Gadson of any responsibility for the death of her son. (She was convicted only of misleading the police after the fact, by lying about the circumstances of the shooting).<\/p>\n
So now what?<\/p>\n
You wanted gun laws, Mayor Menino? You got \u2019em. An illegal gun was in the house. The gun was brought there by a teenager already busted for illegal gun possession. A gun was left out for little kids to play with. A mom was in the house with no idea what the kids are up to. One kid ends up dead.<\/p>\n
You hardly need the cast of CSI-Dorchester to find the crimes here.<\/p>\n
And to the Suffolk district attorney\u2019s credit, they brought the case to trial. Yes, it\u2019s true that Gadson suffered a tragic loss in the death of her son. It\u2019s also true that his death would never have happened without her negligent – in my opinion, criminally negligent – behavior. Justice demands that she be held accountable.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the job of holding her accountable was left to \u201ca jury of her peers.\u201d And now Gadson will go unpunished.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard a lot of apologists for Gadson in the past 24 hours defending her by claiming the prosecutor never proved she knew her gun-toting teen brought the pistol into the house. But imagine your son had been busted for gun possession. Would he be able to get away with casually leaving another illegal gun in his underwear drawer at your house? Or would you be digging through his stuff every day to keep him in line?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not the NRA\u2019s fault that Lakeisha Gadson refused to do her most basic duties as a mom. No amount of gun control laws can change the child-endangering circumstances inside that crime scene of a home, with a mom with a record and five kids from four different fathers, all of whom were in prison at the time.<\/p>\n
And if Suffolk County juries let defendants like Gadson walk, what possible difference can new laws make?<\/p>\n
Article URL: http:\/\/www.bostonherald.com\/news\/columnists\/view.bg?articleid=1274109<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Michael Graham\u00a0\u00a0| \u00a0\u00a0Thursday, August 12, 2010\u00a0\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0http:\/\/www.bostonherald.com Photo by Angela Rowlings (File) Mayor Menino, who are you going to blame now? When 8-year-old Liquarry Jefferson was shot and killed by his 7-year-old cousin, Mayor Tom Menino went to their Dorchester home and \u201coffered support to both families,\u201d as he told the press. And why wouldn\u2019t … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[212,213],"class_list":["post-657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news","category-legislation","tag-gun-laws-cant-disarm-negligent-parenting","tag-michael-graham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/patrioticfederalist.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}