Editorial: Sentence in shooting makes key point about gun safety

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We were surprised by the harshness of the sentence handed down Tuesday to William Davis, the 21-year-old Mitchell Technical Institute student from Burke who accidentally shot and killed his friend and classmate, Matt Montag, 19, of Big Stone City, in December.

Davison County prosecutor Pat Smith recommended a sentence including time in the county jail and 150 hours of community service, with a suspended penitentiary sentence that could be imposed if Davis were to break the terms of his probation.

Judge Tim Bjorkman went beyond Smith’s recommendation and ordered Davis to serve 168 days in the penitentiary — a far tougher place to serve time than the local jail.

Among other things, Bjorkman also ordered Davis to:

• Pay $12,455 in restitution to the Montag family for funeral costs;

• Be on probation for five years;

• Refrain while on probation from handling or possessing a firearm or consuming alcohol (Davis admitted to being drunk at the time of the shooting);

• Travel to schools within a 50-mile radius of Mitchell and speak about the safe handling of firearms and the danger of mixing alcohol with guns;

• Complete 100 hours of community service with hunter-safety programs;

• And participate in and pay for a restorative justice education program, at such time as the Montag family is ready to participate in it with him.

Given the accidental nature of the crime, plus Davis’ obvious remorse and his lack of a prior criminal record, it could be argued that the sentence was too harsh. We would have preferred jail time instead of the penitentiary.

That said, we’re glad the judge took an overall tough stand.

In cases like this, the sentence goes beyond justice for those who were directly involved. It also sends a message to the society and culture in which the crime occurred.

In South Dakota, and especially here in the state’s Pheasant Country, there is a strong hunting culture. We proudly participate in that culture, but we know it comes with dangers. We deal with those dangers by teaching our sons and daughters early on about the proper way to handle firearms. If we do the teaching correctly, our children come away with a healthy and lifelong respect for firearms, and a sense that gun safety should not only be known and practiced, but taken to extremes.

Perhaps William Davis had all that teaching. Maybe he is a good young man with a productive life ahead of him. But, on one terrible evening in December, he still made a horribly regrettable decision to be careless and drunk with a gun.

The incident was covered extensively by the media, and its notoriety provided an opportunity to make a point. That point, driven home to great effect by Judge Bjorkman, is that there are no accidents at the intersection of gunplay and alcohol.

There are only sadly predictable — and preventable — tragedies.

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