Accidental shooting at Martin school shows need for better gun safety laws | Our View

When a Martin County deputy sheriff accidentally discharged his handgun at Treasure Coast Classical Academy last month, it's lucky no students, staff members, or the officer himself were hurt or killed.

Over the long term, though, luck is an unreliable planning tool.

The deputy, a school resource officer, was "dry firing" his weapon, a practice law enforcement officers routinely employ to keep their skills sharp in case they're needed in real-life situations.

However, when someone is dry firing a gun, it's supposed to be empty of ammunition. In this case, apparently there was a bullet left in the chamber of Deputy David Johnson's Glock.

The bullet passed through the wall of Johnson's office, flew across an adjacent hallway, and into a classroom where students were present. The bullet lodged in a bookcase there.

There was a very real risk someone could have been injured or killed.

Martin County Sheriff William Snyder, who once served on Treasure Coast Classical Academy's board of directors and has grandchildren attending the school, said Johnson will be disciplined.

“It was an inappropriate place and an inappropriate time for that exercise,” Snyder said.

Yes, it was. Unfortunately, while rare, incidents in which law enforcement officers accidentally fire live rounds do happen.

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In March, Port St. Lucie Police Sgt. Aaron Martin, husband of Mayor Shannon Martin, accidentally discharged his weapon while dry firing inside a police station. No one was injured in that incident, either, although the bullet damaged an office window.

Martin got a “supervisor’s conference form,” which Police Chief John Bolduc described as a “non-disciplinary corrective action.” Martin apparently had to endure teasing from some of his colleagues as well.

“If you know anything about the police culture, he's had it pretty rough from the other troops,” Bolduc said.

No doubt. But peer pressure shouldn't be the only deterrent to prevent accidents like this from happening, particularly in schools.

State law requires public schools, including charter schools, to have at least one resource officer. In some cases, these positions may be filled by private security guards who meet the state's training requirements.

Quite often, though, school resource officers are sworn police officers or deputy sheriffs.

There may be debate in some quarters about the wisdom of having a constant police presence at schools. However, there's a clear benefit to having those officers on school campuses to deter crimes and promote general safety.

It would be a mistake to use the unfortunate incident at Treasure Coast Classical Academy as a pretext for eliminating or scaling back the school resource officer program.

It also would be a mistake to suggest law enforcement officers shouldn't dry fire their guns under any circumstances, since the practice helps them maintain their motor skills and ensures their weapons are working properly.

The question comes down to establishing reasonable times and places where dry firing exercises should be conducted.

It would be appropriate for state lawmakers to craft legislation governing this practice on school grounds, as well as other public areas where citizens could be endangered by errant shots.

An obvious question, since officers routinely participate in firearms training, is why those types of exercises couldn't be safely conducted at gun ranges.

On the surface, it doesn't seem unreasonable to have an outright prohibition on dry firing at school campuses. If those working in the law enforcement community can suggest valid reasons why the practice must be allowed in schools, at the very least there should be strong safeguards in place to protect students and school staff.

Maybe officers involved in dry firing accidents should face criminal penalties as well as potential internal disciplinary action.

The biggest mistake would be to shrug this off as an isolated incident and assume it will never happen again.

The lives of our students, teachers, and support staff deserve more consideration than that.

Editorials published by TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers are decided collectively by its editorial board. To respond to this editorial with a letter to the editor, email up to 300 words to TCNLetters@TCPalm.com.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Gun firing at Martin charter school should be a wakeup call | Our View