Recent shooting deaths are a reminder of safety challenges for toddlers

A few months ago, in April 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin a 2-year-old boy accidentally shot and killed his mother.  The toddler was sitting in the backseat of the car that his mother was driving.  A loaded gun was on the floor behind the driver’s seat.  The boy picked up the gun and pulled the trigger.  A bullet struck and killed the boy’s mother.  Unfortunately, this heartbreaking circumstance is not an isolated occurrence.  

According to The Washington Post, in 2015, about once a week across the United States a child has found a gun and pointed the gun at themselves or someone else and pulled the trigger.

According to an October 14, 2015 Washington Post article by Christopher Ingraham, research indicates that more than 2/3rds of these incidents involving children accidentally shooting guns could have been prevented if gun owners had stored their guns properly and prevented children from gaining access to the firearm.

With the recent incidents involving children accidentally shooting themselves how can we better protect children from shooting themselves or others?  Should we as a society care about this issue and if we do care how do we address this problem?

Recent incidents involving children accidentally shooting guns and killing themselves or others:

* On April 20, 2016, a 2-year-old boy from Indianapolis, Indiana found a gun in his mother’s purse and shot himself and died.

* In June 2016, a 3-year-old boy from Paulding County, Georgia found a .380-caliber pistol and shot himself in the chest and died.

* On April 22, 2016 in Louisiana, a 3-year-old boy found a pistol in a home and accidentally shot himself in the head and died.

* “It’s heartbreaking to know that these parents, like many of those in America, bring these guns into their homes thinking it’d make their homes safer, but they actually fail to store the gun and ammunition separately – with tragic results,” says Jonathan Hutson a gun violence prevention activist.

* According to Hutson, on average 9 children under the age of 18 are unintentionally shot in the United States every day and of those 7 die each day.

Sources:

“People are getting shot by toddlers on a weekly basis this year,” by Christopher Ingraham. The Washington Post.  October 14, 2015.

“Spate of shootings by children leaves kids, mother dead,” by Holly Yan, www.cnn.com April 29, 2016.