US state of Georgia
Mother was only in the supermarket for a short time: four-year-old boy finds gun in car and shoots himself
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A tragic end to a shopping trip: In the US state of Georgia, a four-year-old boy accidentally killed himself. He was waiting for his mother in the car with two other children – and found an unsecured gun.
It is a tragedy that is happening again and again in the United States: A child in the state of Georgia in DeKalb County accidentally shot himself with his parents’ gun.
The four-year-old boy was in the car with his mother, a toddler and a 13-year-old relative on Sunday afternoon, US media reports, citing the police. The woman parked the car in a supermarket parking lot, went to the store to shop and left the children alone.
Four-year-old in Georgia handles an unsecured gun
While the mother was away, the four-year-old reportedly managed to get his hands on a gun that was lying unsecured in the vehicle. A shot fired from the gun and hit the boy. The 13-year-old then ran to the supermarket to notify the mother. The four-year-old was taken to a hospital but succumbed to his injuries. Investigators believe the fatal shot was an accident. No other person was injured, according to police, and no arrests were made.
“Our hearts and thoughts are with the family,” said DeKalb Police Commissioner Mirtha Ramos. “We ask gun owners to keep their guns safe at all times.”
The four-year-old’s grandmother reportedly said she didn’t know how the boy got his gun because her daughter didn’t have a gun. “He’s innocent and he’s so pure,” said the woman. “Even though he’s not here, we know he’s in heaven. We know it.”
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After a statewide census by Everytown for Gun Safety, a US nonprofit gun control organization, so far in 2022 there have been at least 30 accidental gunshots by children, killing 13 and injuring 18. Last year there were at least 377 accidental gunshots by children, resulting in 154 deaths and 242 injuries nationwide.
Nowhere in the world do people own as many guns as in the United States. According to that Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, the United States is the only country in the world where privately owned guns outnumber residents. According to the Gun Violence Archive, a total of 15,208 people were killed by guns in the United States in 2019 (excluding suicides).
Swell: Fox 5 Atlanta, WRDW, NBC News, Everytown for Gun Safety, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, extra