TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

The one kind of case most police officers dread responding to is a child who has been shot, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference Monday promoting November as Gun Safety Month.

"That tugs at your heart," Youngblood said. He noted he is probably the leading sheriff in the state to advocate the right to own a gun, but he also will enforce laws to keep guns away from children.

He said his department is ready to be "the worst nightmare" to a parent who fails to keep a gun out of a child's hands.

Youngblood was joined at the news conference by the Kern County Network for Children, the office of Kern County Supervisor Mike Maggard and Bear Mountain Sports to promote gun safety aimed at keeping children safe from death or injury.

The California Department of Public Health has reported that from 2000 to 2007, 29 children were killed by guns in Kern County -- 20 by assault or homicide, three by an unintentional shooting and six from a self-inflicted wound.

That doesn't include one of the more recent tragedies -- the shooting death in May 2009 of a 2-year-old boy by his 3-year-old sister who found a .45-caliber gun under a mattress in southwest Bakersfield.

That case illustrates a point made by Youngblood: Children do what they see on television -- they point a gun at someone and pull a trigger.

It also illustrates another point: While a parent may be criminally negligent in leaving a gun that's accessible to a child, the pain of losing a child can be considered as a factor for not filing charges against the parent.

The parents in the southwest Bakersfield case, another 2003 shooting death case in Stallion Springs and a similar case in east Bakersfield in 1998 were not prosecuted because, as Youngblood described, the loss of their child was worse than any criminal prosecution.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Saleen, while endorsing the sheriff's gun safety message, said he can't recall a prosecution of a parent for negligently leaving a gun accessible to a child that led to a child's death. That's because the law considers the impact on a parent and whether the parent acted with gross negligence, he said. The children in the Stallion Springs and east Bakersfield cases had taken gun safety classes, according to news reports.

But, Youngblood noted, that hasn't stopped his office from going after parents when a child brings a gun to school even though no one is hurt. That happens occasionally, he said, and parents face a vigorous investigation.

"There is no reason in Kern County not to have a safe firearm in your home," said Gene Thome Jr., owner of Bear Mountain Sports, who said he gives away cable locks people can put on their guns. Such locks can sell for $7 or $8 and they transform a gun into a paperweight, he said.

He said he knew a family in 1985 when one young boy shot his brother after finding his dad's gun, and that has made him a fierce advocate for gun safety.

Thome demonstrated gun vaults available at his and other stores that can be opened in a couple of seconds with a fingerprint or a three number code. Other solutions are available, he said.