LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY)- Four people were arrested and charged for negligent homicide after the shooting death of a 2-year-old boy in Lafayette.

News 10’s Rebeca Marroquin spoke to a gun expert about why, when there’s a gun in the home, it’s important to practice gun safety.

“Two things have to happen for someone to be shot. You point the gun at somebody, and then the trigger has to be pulled,” says George Fournet, owner of Post Exchange, a gun shop and training facility in Youngsville.

Fournet grew up around guns. He says his dad, who was an artillery officer in the Army during the Korean War, taught him that gun safety was a priority.

But he also says this was stressed during his time in the Marine Corps.

Fournet says his entire life, he’s been told– and now teaches– that properly handling a gun is the key to avoid tragedies, “You have to learn the safety procedures of the gun, you have to learn how to shoot well, get that discipline.”
He compares the responsibility of owning a gun to that of owning a vehicle, “Same premise. You put the phone down, pay attention to the road, pay attention to what’s going on around you. Same thing with the gun. You have to pay the gun the attention that it deserves.”

Fournet says it’s when this is ignored that tragedies happen, “That’s where a lot of people fall. It’s because this discipline is not put out.”