WASHINGTON – A 2-year-old died in Texas after shooting himself with a gun he found in a family member’s backpack, said officials, the latest in a string of similar accidents by United States children that have become tragically ordinary.
The boy in the city of Waco sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was taken to hospital, where he later died, according to a statement by local police released on Thursday.
Investigators believe that the child killed himself by accident.
After the shooting, the relative whose gun the toddler had found fled the scene with the weapon, but later returned and was detained. The 21-year-old suspect has been charged with evidence tampering.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy organisation, 765 people have been killed and over 1,500 injured from 2015 to 2020 in “unintentional shootings” by children. And, as many as 111 people have been killed this year alone.
The group called such shootings “a heartbreaking part of America’s gun violence epidemic”.
“Every year, hundreds of children in the US gain access to unsecured, loaded guns in closets and nightstand drawers, in backpacks and purses, or just left out,” said the group on its website.
“With tragic regularity, children find these unsecured guns and unintentionally shoot (themselves) or someone else.”
The US constitution guarantees the right to bear arms, and 30% of American adults own at least one gun. Each year, about 40,000 die in the country due to gun violence, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks gun deaths. – AFP, September 25, 2021
