A few months after Newtown, when it seemed like people had started to forget the horror of kindergartners being gunned down in their school, I heard someone I know say that she wanted to get a gun to keep in her home for protection. I started thinking about the relative rarity of armed home invasions versus the risk that a gun in the home would be used to harm the people living in it -- particularly the children.
I began collecting media reports of accidental shootings of children and teens, but stopped after going through a few months because it was so depressing. Then after last week's shooting death of a 2-year-old girl by her 5-year-old brother, and after noting the view of some that such shootings were rare, I decided to finish the list (well, at least try to get it up to date). I learned that in just the month of April, there were at least four children aged 6 and under who were shot to death by other young children.
So here is a list of accidental shootings of children and teens since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012. As of May 4, 2013 -- less than five months later -- this list includes 137 accidental shootings, 57 of which were fatal. These children and teens were accidentally shot by themselves, by parents, siblings, relatives, friends, neighbors, and caregivers. In other words, these shootings were not by strangers. Many of the guns used in these shootings were obtained by family members for personal protection.
This list is not exhaustive, as many accidental shootings are unreported. It also doesn't include suicides using guns kept in the home, which are also often unreported in the media. In addition, I left out quite a few gun injuries suffered by older teens. Finally, this list does not include several incidents of shootings by children and teens when the victim was an adult.
I challenge you to read all of the articles linked below the jump and conclude that there is no need to change anything about the way we deal with guns as a society.
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