Shootings by toddlers are becoming an increasingly dire threat. The Washington Post's Christopher Ingraham counted at least 43 cases of gun mishandling by children under the age of 3 in 2015. These incidents occur when a child finds a gun left unattended by parents. In 2015, at least 13 children shot and killed themselves and two killed family members: a father in Alabama and a 1-year-old child in Ohio. Other cases resulted in injuries.
In the current period, 23 people have been shot by small children, and 18 of those victims have been children themselves. Nine children died in the accidents. According to Christopher Ingraham, this is already five accidents more than during the same period in 2015. The incidents are distributed across the US, with Missouri leading in 2015 and so far, alongside Texas, leading this year, as well. In 2015, the most populated state — California — had no such incidents.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), who conducted the research, has been banned by Congress from continuing its studies of the problem, reportedly on behalf of National Rifle Association (NRA) lobby.
As House Speaker John Boehner put it in 2013,"The CDC is there to look at diseases that need to be dealt with to protect public health. I'm sorry, but a gun is not a disease. Guns don't kill people — people do."
That last sentence is the prevalent mindset in the NRA-backed image of gun regulation, used almost universally among gun advocates worldwide. But steadily increasing accidental gun killings by toddlers clearly debunks that easy mantra — the idealized picture that guns are only used deliberately is clearly wrong.
While certain effective measures that could prevent accidental gun mishandling, including personal identification gun safeties, exist, they are naturally opposed by a relentlessly pugnacious NRA. While the highly-debatable impact of such protection systems on the sale of firearms is a matter of discussion, children keep shooting themselves and other people on a regular basis.
