{"id":303985,"date":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303985\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T15:29:09","slug":"justice-4-all-accidental-jacksonville-teen-shootings-raise-questions-about-parents-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/303985\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice 4 All: Accidental Jacksonville teen shootings raise questions about parents\u2019 liability"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Two teenagers were shot in Jacksonville in incidents police are calling accidental, and legal experts say that label does not necessarily shield adults from criminal or civil liability.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Jacksonville teen in critical condition after gunshot wound to head in \u2018accidental incident\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office is investigating both shootings, including one last Saturday in the Inwood Terraces neighborhood that involved a Mandarin High School football player<\/a>, authorities said. Investigators are looking at how a firearm came into a young person\u2019s possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccidental\u201d generally means the shooting was not intentional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat does not absolve any type of legal responsibility,\u201d Millicent Daniels, Esq. of Daniels Law Firm said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to pull a trigger to be legally responsible for an incident that occurs if it was your firearm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Click here for more Justice 4 All stories<\/a><\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s Safe Storage of Firearms Act requires owners who keep a loaded firearm on their premises to take precautions if they know \u2014 or reasonably should know \u2014 a minor could access it. Under the statute, a minor is defined as 16 or younger. Owners must secure firearms in a locked box or safe, or use a trigger lock.<\/p>\n

If those steps aren\u2019t taken and a minor gains unsupervised access, the owner can face criminal charges in some circumstances. A misdemeanor charge is possible if a minor exhibits or possesses a firearm in a public place or handles it carelessly or in a threatening way. The law does not apply when access results from unlawful entry.<\/p>\n

Criminal penalties can escalate if a minor uses the gun and someone is seriously injured or killed. Separate civil liability also may follow: victims or their families can sue for negligence if an owner breached a duty to secure a firearm and that breach led to injury or death. <\/p>\n

Lawsuits can seek damages for medical bills, lost earnings and pain and suffering and, experts warn, can be financially devastating.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Two teenagers were shot in Jacksonville in incidents police are calling accidental, and legal experts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,1872,5435,5436],"class_list":["post-303985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jso","tag-justice-4-all","tag-morning-show"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}