Kids and Guns

[Rogue]

Toddlers have shot at least 23 people this year
By Christopher Ingraham May 1

This past week, a Milwaukee toddler fatally shot his mother after finding a handgun in the back seat of the car they were riding in. The case drew a lot of national attention given the unusual circumstances: Little kids rarely kill people, intentionally or not.

But this type of thing happens more often than you might think. Since April 20, there have been at least seven instances in which a 1- , 2- or 3-year-old shot themselves or somebody else in the United States:

On April 20, a 2-year-old boy in Indiana found the gun his mother left in her purse on the kitchen counter and fatally shot himself.
The next day in Kansas City, Mo., a 1-year-old girl evidently shot and killed herself with her father's gun while he was sleeping.
On April 22, a 3-year-old in Natchitoches, La., fatally shot himself after getting hold of a gun.
On April 26, a 3-year-old boy in Dallas, Ga., fatally shot himself in the chest with a gun he found at home.
On April 27, the Milwaukee toddler fatally shot his mother in the car.
That same day, a 3-year-old boy in Grout Township, Mich., shot himself in the arm with a gun he found at home. He is expected to survive.
On April 29, a 3-year-old girl shot herself in the arm after grabbing a gun in a parked car in Augusta, Ga. She is also expected to survive.
Last year, a Washington Post analysis found that toddlers were finding guns and shooting people at a rate of about one a week. This year, that pace has accelerated. There have been at least 23 toddler-involved shootings since Jan. 1, compared with 18 over the same period last year.

In the vast majority of cases, the children accidentally shoot themselves. That's happened 18 times this year, and in nine of those cases the children died of their wounds.

Toddlers have shot other people five times this year. Two of those cases were fatal: this week's incident in Milwaukee, and that of a 3-year-old Alabama boy who fatally shot his 9-year-old brother in February.

[Guns are now killing as many people as cars in the U.S.]

These numbers represent only a small fraction of gun violence involving children. For instance, the pro-gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety has found at least 77 instances this year in which a child younger than 18 has accidentally shot someone. And there is a whole different universe of gun violence in which toddlers are shot, intentionally or not, by adults.

FULL STORY HERE

[Kaere]

So tragic and so preventable! there is something seriously broken in this world...

[Rogue]

Real people let this happen... loaded guns lying on the back seat of a car WTF!

[Rockhopper]

Sadly Yankland is seriously paranoid, at least some of the people are anyway.

The 2nd Amendment was written and ratified in 1802 when guns were single-shot, muzzle-loading flintlocks not M16's.

People walking around the mall packing iron is ridiculous too.

Tim.

[Rockhopper]

Sums it up really:



Tim.

[Agartha]

Jeez that's terrible! I remember of one case but I didn't know it was happening so often!!!!! How can these parents leave guns in places where toddlers can reach? Toddlers are so curious they will open every drawer, bag, box etc in any place. When mine were that age nothing dangerous was left where they could reach, kitchen drawers with knives were locked and the same for cupboards with cleaning products.

How sad......

[Lenzabi]

Of al the industries to stay in America, gun manufacturing is it, and they mass produce in hopes of Military, police and government contracts, hunters, sport shooters, but then you have the nutters who want guns badly as they feel unsafe if only the "Gubbmint haz da gunz"

[Stargate]

The truth is while we speak someone is shooting someone else, and it might be your child. Where do we stop if people are no longer capable of thinking for themselves. We have handed over these diseases to our children, what we teach them is what they grow up on.
Lets face it, it you hear someone screaming and you hear gun shots, you are not going to help because of fear. If you call the police you may very well end up dead, especially if you are black.
If you are a parent and you cannot understand children and how they move, what can be done?
There is so much hypocrisy going on.

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