To the editor:

Last week in Juneau, Alaska, five high school freshmen boys went after school to one of their homes.

They hung out talking and eating snacks in the kitchen. No parents were home. The boys checked out the guns in the locked gun cabinet, then the teen host got the key to the cabinet and opened it.

For some reason a bullet was put into the chamber of a .44 magnum gun — just a game. When the gun accidentally went off, it exploded through the gut of our friend Patrick Neary’s 14-year-old-son, Aidan. The bullet also went through a boy behind Aidan, who had his back turned away from those kids.

Aidan was fatally wounded, dying within three hours of arriving at the hospital.

The other boy was medivaced to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. There are concerns that he may be paralyzed from the waist down. The traumatized 15-year-old boy who pulled the trigger is now in youth detention with charges of manslaughter. He is not allowed to be in the custody of his parents at home.

The other boys who witnessed this nightmare and their parents, are in crisis, school kids are in shock and people in the town of Juneau ache. It was an accident.

Please lock your gun cabinets. Please store bullets away from your guns. Please hide gun cabinet keys so teens and young children will not find them.

And if you pray, please send prayers to the boys and families in Juneau.

Julie Pigott

Ben Thomas

Lela Thomas-Pigott

Finley Thomas

Clinton