'Nikolai's Law': how the death of the son of Russian immigrants changed the rules in New York

Kolya Naumkin, the 12-year-old son of immigrants from Russia, was accidentally shot by a friend with his father's pistol. The children were playing, the boy's classmate pulled the trigger ... Four years after Kolya's death, the state of New York, one of the most liberal in relation to weapons, adopted the “Nicholas law” - on the safe storage of weapons. The story of the deceased boy and the law passed after his death, told the publication Currently,.

The Naumkin tragedy

Kolya Naumkin grew up in a musical and theatrical family. His grandfather Oleg Moston is a world renowned pianist. He worked at the Moscow Philharmonic, and then accompanied performances at the American Ballet Theater and the Joffrey Ballet, and taught at the Tees School of Art and the New York Conservatory of Dance. He has lived in New York since the early 1970s. Boy's father Yuri Naumkin Is a former actor who moved to the United States in the 1990s.

In December 2010, the day before the Christmas holidays, Kolya was visiting a classmate, the boys were playing. A friend brought his father's 9mm pistol, accidentally pulled the trigger - and hit Kolya in the head. The boy died in the hospital.

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The gun got to the children due to the fact that it was not hidden properly, but then in New York, there was no criminal punishment for improper possession of firearms. Murder - It was a criminal offense, but the criminal justice system does not apply to 12-year-olds. The owner of the pistol pleaded guilty - he paid a fine.

Kohl was buried at the Maplewood Cemetery in Wilton.

On his tombstone is a fragment of a poem that the boy wrote on September 29, 2010, shortly before his death.

Less than a month later, the boy's grandfather died. He could not recover from the death of his grandson. On that day, having visited Kolya's grave, Oleg Moston went out onto the road - and he was hit by a car.

Yuri Naumkin, the boy's father, говорил then, that is not against the right of citizens to have weapons, but believes that others also have the right to know who has them in the house.

“If I knew that there was a pistol in Kolya’s friend’s house, I wouldn’t let my son go there,” said the father. - I hope that our tragedy can have at least some positive effect on the district. Perhaps someday I will find a meaning in what happened and calm down, but this is far from it. "

In 2010, when this tragedy happened, the death of 2 children in the United States came from a shot from weapons. In New York State, 116 children died in this way.

How did the "law of Nikolai" appear

In 2014, Kolya Naumkin's parents and an initiative group of supporters of gun control pushed for the New York State Assembly to consider a bill that was later called “Nikolai's Law”.

The bill required that the weapons be kept in a safe place and that children do not have access to them. There is also a penalty for violations of this law.

A weapon in a home is 43 times more likely to be used to kill someone the family knows than to kill someone in self-defense, the bill says.

Research shows that having affordable firearms in the home increases the risk of teenage suicide.

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The New York State Assembly passed the bill in 2015, the Senate - in 2019. Now New York requires that weapons be kept in a safe place out of the reach of children, otherwise the owner will face criminal liability - up to a year in prison and a $ 1000 fine.

Nikolai's mother, Oksana Naumkina, then thanked the legislators for the adoption of the law.

“Neither parent should experience such losses,” she said. "So it's important to stick together to prevent senseless tragedies over and over again."