Keep kids away from guns

One can only admire Mark Rey Abaño for refusing to let his injury get in the way of an education.

The 14-year-old shooting victim from barangay Pasil was discharged from the Cebu City Medical Center this week and said he looks forward to going back to school even if his left side remains partly paralyzed.

It’s a miracle he didn’t suffer worse, after being shot in the head by an 11-year-old, the result of horseplay in a billiard hall.

Mark Rey’s family worried a lot about unpaid hospital bills of P17,000. The P5,000 handed by the family of the child shooter was sadly insufficent.

City Hall picked up the hospital tab through its City Hospitalization Assistance and Medicine Program (CHAMP). We learned that the surgeon treated Mark Rey as a charity patient.

Mayor Michael Rama, who learned about the unpaid bill, ordered the City Social Welfare Office to process the amount but he was all too glad to hear that Rep. Tomas Osmeña of Cebu City’s south district would also allocate P25,000 as finanical aid from his pork barrel.

Then there is the problem of rehabilitation. The road to recovery will be difficult and costly. Who will shoulder expenses of physical therapy?

A lawsuit for damages to settle the matter is out of the question. Families of both the victim and 11-year-old shooter can’t afford to hire lawyers.

This has to take a backseat to concern over how Mark Rey can resume a normal life. Social welfare officials may have to knock on the doors of other charity institutions and benevolent donors.

The young shooter’s father is still at large.

It was he, who reportedly handed the paltik revolver to his son as a “gift” to play with, shortly before it was misused to fire at Mark Rey’s head.

The father faces arrest for his supreme act of parental irresponsibility.

Since the boy who pulled the trigger is a minor, way below the age of criminal liability, he will never be arrested or jailed. His guilt, however, will remain a source of trauma for him. The boy does have a conscience, as his tearful confession to his mother showed. The shooting was a silly, near-fatal accident.

The police have repeatedly said they have a campaign to round up loose firearms.

We have a better suggestion.

Don’t give children a chance to use a gun at all. Don’t let them watch their parents carelessly fire one either. With all the violence kids already see in TV and video games, the lines blur between virtual wargames and reality.

The harm they do to others and themselves becomes a tragic afterthought as they think guns are for play.