According to an article:
- A 6-year old girl got hold of a loaded, unsecured gun and shot through a wall, narrowly missing her 6-month old sister.
- A 3-year old boy found a loaded, unsecured gun in a closet and shot himself in the foot.
- A 3-year old boy shot himself in the torso with a loaded, unsecured gun he found on a couch.
- A 4-year old child was left alone with a loaded, unsecured gun on a livingroom table.
- A 1-year old boy shot himself in the hand with a loaded, unsecured gun he found on a coffee table.
- A 5-year old girl was shot in the arm by a younger sibling.
The article stresses the importance of gun-owner responsibility:
Grant Morgan, gunsmith and gun safety instructor at Clarksville Guns and Archery, said locking, securing and storing a gun is the responsibility of the gun owner.
“Accidents happen because of negligence and ignorance,” he said. “If you own a firearm and have no knowledge of how to handle it, that is negligence if you don’t find out how to protect yourself and others.
“The gun doesn’t have a mind of its own. If you leave it unattended, it is exposed to whoever passes by, and unfortunately it has been small children lately. Children are attracted to guns. They see them on TV and some of them even have toy guns. They don’t understand that their actions are permanent, that you can’t pull a bullet back once it’s been shot.”
Few children under age eight can reliably distinguish between real and toy guns or fully understand the consequences of their actions. Yet children as young as age 3 are strong enough to pull the trigger of many handguns, according to information from the Safe Kids USA organization.
“The problem we have here is getting the owner’s training level up to match the responsibility they have taken on in owning a firearm,” Morgan said.
Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.
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