A three-year-old girl accidentally killed her four-year-old sister with a handgun near Houston, Texas, despite the presence of five adults including their parents in their home, police said.
The Sheriff of Harris County Ed Gonzalez said of the shooting late Sunday that the three-year-old gained access to a loaded, semi-automatic pistol.
When family members listened to a single gunshot, they flew into a bedroom and saw the four-year-old girl on the floor “unresponsive,” he said. Gonzalez highlighted that the shooting occurred unintentionally. He added that it just seems like another tragic story of a child gaining access to a firearm and hurting someone else.
According to the Pew Research Center, about 40 percent of US families have guns with most of those also including kids.
But less than half of the households with guns keep them safely, according to Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health. More than 44,000 handgun deaths were reported last year across the United States.
Shootings were a leading causality of death among children under 18 last year, with nearly 1,700 cases, including 314 under 11 years old, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Texas, with 30 million residents, is one of the easiest places in the country to obtain a gun and they can be carried in public without restriction.
This is very preventable.
You’ve got to be sure you’re being a responsible gun owner, securing your weapons in a safe place. It’s got to be more than just telling young kids not to touch the weapons.”
Gonzalez said of the shooting Sunday.
