A gunshot rings out as a panicked teenager calls 911 for help.
"We were holding a gun and it went off. ... I think he's dying. ... Please help me. I'm scared,” a voice on the line tells a dispatcher.
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The unnerving scene serves as the beginning of a message Office of Juvenile Affairs Director Gene Christian wants to convey to Oklahoma parents.
"We want to begin the debate and begin discussion so it doesn't happen again,” Christian said Friday as he unveiled a short educational film on gun safety.
The film invites two proud gun owners to tell their stories, which both end with the tragic loss of a son in accidental shootings.
Both accidents occurred the same summer in the same county, where Christian formerly served as district attorney before coming to the youth agency.
During his first year at the helm of the agency, Christian pushed for legal reforms that would penalize the owners of guns involved in accidental shootings but was unsuccessful. Now, he is trying to educate parents about the deadly consequences of letting unsupervised children have access to the parents' firearms.
In April 2006, Dalton Dorsey, 15, was camping with friends in Caddo County when one of the boys accidentally fired a .22 caliber rifle, striking Dalton in the head. He died as his father, James Dorsey, drove him to the hospital.
"He had been hunting with me and saw me fire a gun. He knew if I pull the trigger, something is going to lose its life,” Dorsey says in the film.
Dorsey, a gun owner, thought he had taught his son how to safely handle a gun. Unfortunately, the other boy's father hadn't, he said.
About two months later, another boy, 14-year-old Patrick Bowen, died in another accidental shooting in Cement. Bowen and a 10-year-old boy were playing a game of "cowboys and Indians” with a loaded .357 Magnum when the gun discharged.
"You never expect it to happen to you. It always happens to someone else,” said Geoff Bowen, the boy's father.
Bowen, who also is a gun owner, said he never thought to ask parents whether they had guns in their home.
His son was staying with his grandparents and visiting a friend whose father was a gun dealer.
Bowen said he assumed the man knew how to keep his guns safe because, but he was wrong.
"There's all sorts of people who are going to say it (the video) is anti-gun,” Bowen said. "It's not trying to get rid of guns. It's about taking care of them properly.”
Since his son's death, Bowen has heard of 16 more incidents like the one in which his son died, he said.
"We've got to start teaching our children to make critical decisions earlier in life,” Dorsey said.
The video also features Bret Burns, the current district attorney for Caddo County.
"I'm a big gun user myself,” Burns says in the film. "Guns are just like a vehicle. If they are not used properly, they can cause death.”
Christian said his agency hopes to begin distributing the video to various civic organizations and will begin producing posters, magnets and brochures soon to go along with the safety campaign.
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Scooby from Ardmore, What the f*** gives you the athority to call Mr. Christian a homosexual? (A)-Personal experience? (B)- Rumors? (C)-Your inability to come out of the closet yourself? Answer please.......I choose answer "C". You must be the closet-case. Grow up and get your facts STRAIGHT before you start calling someone GAY. Besides, I'm a HOMO, but I dont go around calling people who dont agree with me STRAIGT. There is always a way to get your point across without degrading someone else to make YOU feel better! Just something to think about.....
It is a shame parents that has firearms do not teach their children safety with firearms. There are too many accidents involving careless handling of firearms. Quite as few customers come into my shop with little children and the first thing some of them do is to start grabbing up firearms.I tell them to either control their child or send them outside. The ones that get mad are probably the ones that their child does not mind at home. It is too bad that two little children had to die because their parents didn't teach them how to properly handle fireaarms.Their parents should be held liable for letting this happen.
Rusty
Scooby from ardmore you have got to be kidding me. You are saying because Gene christian is homosexual he can not be in charge of male juveniles, GROW UP and GET A CLUE!!!!! As far as he has never won a case and he is incompetent, that is hearsay and there is nothing on his record for having been removed for those charges. becareful of SLANDER it is wrong!!!
Gene Christian is homosexual. Thats not illegal. However, I don't believe he should be in charge of anything to do with juvenile boys. He is former DA of Stephens County. This man never won a case as a private practicing attorney but is heralded as a great individual. I am acquainted with two individuals that used him as an attorney when he was in private practice. Both terminated his services for incompetence. His response to one these individuals was "one of these days I'm going to be somebody". This is a man that has tried to build his reputation by destroying someone else's. I don't understand this attachment between Attorney General Drew Edmondson & Gene Christian. Well ok maybe I do.
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Rusty
rusty