Over the weekend, a handful of news outlets carried the very tragic story on the passing of 6-year-old Millie Drew Kelly. Kelly died after being accidentally shot by her 4-year-old brother inside of their family car. According to the report, in an area about 40 minutes from Atlanta, Kelly’s brother found an unsecured gun on the car’s console. Kelly and her brother were going to his baseball game with their mother. AJC.Com spoke with Sgt. Ashley Henson, who said “They were all loaded up to leave the home and the car wouldn’t start.” When the children’s mother stepped outside of the vehicle to try and figure out why the car would not start, the gun went off.
Kelly was rushed to a children’s hospital in the Atlanta area, where she died two days later. The family has updated a GoFundMe page they had set up to offset her medical costs. I cannot imagine the suffering they must be going through right now. Sgt. Ashley Henson told CNN that no charges had been filed, “It’s just a really sad situation.”
This comes not long after Arizona state legislators were able to thwart a NRA attempt at allowing loaded guns in vehicles on elementary school grounds. At the time, Republican Rep. Regina Cobb told reporters that gun owners didn’t want to deal with the “unsafe” hassle of loading and unloading guns. I think it’s time that gun owners take a deep look into their souls and ask themselves what does gun safety actually mean to them, and what is the price of that safety.