Virginia Teacher Shot by 6-Year-Old

A first grader at an elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, shot a teacher last Friday after an argument in the classroom. The first grade teacher, 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner, was rushed to Riverside Regional Medical Center with life-threatening injuries and is still in critical condition.

School superintendent Dr. George Parker responded to the crisis, saying, “We need to keep guns out of the hands of our young people.” And many parents agree with him, saying that state and federal governments need to implement stricter gun laws to keep firearms out of children’s hands.

Real solutions: It is undeniable that this shooting would not have happened if a first grader wasn’t able to get a gun. But first graders are not allowed to buy guns in America, so no gun law would have prevented this attack. Instead, this was the result of a lack of parental oversight. Systematic studies reveal that there is one common factor that almost all mass murderers have in common: lack of parental involvement. To learn more about why kids kill, read our article “The Motives for Mass Shootings” and its accompanying infographic.