120 kids shot since Sandy Hook

Others are noticing what the contributors to this blog have been writing about. There seems to be an awful lot of kids shooting kids or themselves in mostly accidental shootings. An article we found in the New York Daily News documents the number of shootings since Sandy Hook last December. There is a lot here to digest. Here is just one section of the article:

In the almost seven months since Adam Lanza’s demented slaughter of 20 Sandy Hook Elementary first-graders and six adults, at least 40 more children age 12 and under have died from accidental shootings across the United States, according to data compiled by the Daily News.

Those numbers do not include children killed by adults. Add those tragedies in, and about 120 innocents ages 12 and under have been killed by guns since Newtown.

These shootings took place in 17 states from Alaska to Florida, in rural counties and big cities alike. Six accidental shootings killed kids in Ohio and another five in Texas, where about 36% of residents have a gun in the home. Nationally, about 35% of homes contain at least one gun.

“First and foremost, appreciate the fact that bringing a firearm into the home has the potential to kill somebody,” says Daniel Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

“Be aware of the true nature of youth, which includes the curiosity to play with something they find and also consider the impulsivity of suicide. Marry the risks of the behavior of kids and the danger of firearms and it should lead you to prevent kids from having access to guns.” (...) 

Gun locks could help prevent these tragedies, says one such advocate, Bill Brassard, a spokesman from the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

Since 1999, more than 36 million gun locks have been given away free through the NSSF’s Project Childsafe, Brassard said.

But a long-term solution for a long-term problem hasn’t surfaced. Gun locks are only “the first line of defense,” said Brassard, who also urges gun owners to invest in other gun storage options such as keypad or biometric lockboxes.

“The gun owner needs to know who in their household should have access to firearms and to take steps to prevent those who shouldn’t from being able to acquire that access,” Brassard said. “It’s about keeping guns out of the wrong hands.”

As we always say, every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.