Guns remain the leading cause of death for children in the US. Yet another 2-year-old has become a statistic as they shoot themself with an unattended gun.
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The 2-year-old child was playing with the gun while in the bedroom with his mom in their Florida home. The mother, leaving the child to toy with the lethal weapon, wasn't paying attention. The gun then discharged and shot the child. The boy was declared dead at the scene.
The gun belonged to the woman's fianceé. It had been left unsecured and within arms reach of the child. Because of this, the 2-year-old was able to shoot himself.
In Florida, the law states that a weapon has to be secured and locked away. Consequently, the parents of the child will be held responsible. The police chief released a statement. "This is Florida, and you know Floridians like their guns - and that's wonderful. However, responsible gun ownership cannot be understated. Guns have to be locked up and secured."
2-Year-Old Shot Himself Is One Of Thousands
In 2021 there were 2,590 deaths by shooting for children under 17 in the US, according to the Pew Research Center. This is due to a number of factors, including suicides, mass shootings, and of course, accidental situations like this. The 2-year-old fits into a specific category of child shooting fatality.
In this case, the child was playing with a gun, resulting in them shooting themselves. This accidental shooting category has more than a thousand cases a year. Unattended weapons in the US are a huge cause of injury and death in children.
With the sheer amount of guns in the country, people become blase about them. In cases like this, the deadly weapon is left lying around unsecured. Nobody can blame a child for picking the weapon up thinking it was a toy.
The 2-year-old that shot themselves were behaving like any other kid would, Curiousity got the better of it, and the negligence of the parent led to his death. In Florida, the law states that a gun has to be locked and secured. But, in other states, this is often not the case.
