4-year old Philly boy shot by gun under mother's pillow

A 4-year old boy in Philadelphia was playing in his mother's bedroom when he found an unsecured, loaded .38-caliber handgun under her pillow and shot himself in the chest.  The mother was home at the time.

According to the article:

"All we can tell is, it was accidental," 15th District police officer Chris Bennett said Saturday night.

The wounded boy was in surgery at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, police said.
A neighbor who spoke on condition of anonymity said the house in question appeared to be occupied by a woman and several children who had lived there for no more than a few years and who mostly kept to themselves.

"I see the little four-year-old boy all the time," often walking with his mother, the neighbor said.

In the summer, the family would place a swimming pool on their postage-stamp front lawn so that the boy and others could play. In winter, the yard became home to a miniature basketball hoop - perfect for a four-year-old.

The rowhouse block is a draw for first-time homebuyers. Asked if it was the kind of place where residents felt the need to keep firearms by their bedsides, the neighbor said it was nothing of the sort - neither a target of vandals or nor of violent criminals.

In fact, the neighbor said, the nearest police station is two blocks away and visible from residents' front stoops. "Our neighborhood's quiet," the neighbor said. "Everybody looks out for everybody."

 Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.