'Gun locks would have saved our child'

LARGO — For Sean and Jeanne Caroline, life is all about preventing the next shooting.

They lecture about the dangers of guns at schools. They believe all guns should be locked up.

Their son Sean was accidentally killed by a friend who was playing with his father's gun in September 2003. He was 12, a seventh-grader at Largo Middle School.

"The people that we were died that day," said Jeanne, 47.

The couple started a foundation and a Web site — www.seanneswish.com — to promote gun safety.

"We live with it every day,'' Sean said. "We make it a mission in our lives."

But unlike many in the polarized debate over gun violence, the Carolines don't consider themselves pro- or antigun.

Instead, they focus on what they consider a middle ground: teaching gun safety and locking guns up.

"We still feel ... gun locks would have saved our child,'' Sean said.

The Carolines stopped short of saying whether they support a handgun ban like the District of Columbia's, although Jeanne did say she thought it was good that "they're bringing up the Second Amendment and looking at it."

Jeanne spends most of her time working with the foundation; Sean, 46, is self-employed in the transport business, which allows him to schedule talks during the day.

Winning political changes, like a law mandating gun locks, is hard, Sean said, because lawmakers seem scared to take stands that could damage their careers.

"If I could have a politician feel the way I feel for one day, I don't think it would matter to them if their careers were ruined to make a change," he said.

For the first time, the Supreme Court appeared ready Tuesday to interpret the Second Amendment as protecting an individual's right to own a gun. But what restrictions for safety could the government place on that right? Justices and families around the bay area will likely wrestle with the question. Q&A on Times 2, 4A