A two-year-old child in Indiana fatally shot himself Wednesday night after finding his mom’s gun in her purse. Firefighters worked tirelessly to save the boy’s life, but they were not successful. The boy was transported to a hospital, but he was declared dead soon after.
The mother had her purse on the kitchen counter. The boy got the gun out of it when she stepped away for a moment. She was questioned by the police, but she was released.
Seriously?! It is her fault that the child is dead. Hopefully, she will be charged with something.
Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham said in a 2015 article:
“But cases like this happen a lot more frequently than you might think. After spending a few hours sifting through news reports, I’ve found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself.”
Last month, a Florida woman was shot in the back by her child who managed to pick up her gun and fire through the car seat. This woman had been taking her FOUR-YEAR-OLD to gun ranges. Children that young don’t understand the seriousness of handling a gun. They may not even know about the life and death concept at that age.
A Boston University study pinpoints the three types of laws that would drastically reduce gun deaths. We need background checks for ALL gun purchases; no more gun show sales. We also need background checks for people buying ammunition. No one needs 5000 rounds of ammo lying around in their house. We also need to use firearm identification more; we can figure out which gun fired a bullet by studying the fired shell.
Parents, please keep your guns away from the children! These deaths are unnecessary!
Featured image via flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
