The U.S.’s availability of guns and the storage of guns in many households mean that, on occasions, young children get hold of the weapons and play with them. The outcome of this (mostly) unsupervised activity is that, on average, a toddler shoots another person (or themselves) at the rate of one shooting per week. This has occurred throughout 2015 and 2016. In some cases, the Press Union reports, the shootings are fatal.
Comparing 2015 and 2016 the most recent data suggests the rate of shootings is increasing, with the rate of shootings being 6 percent up on 2016 compared with the preceding year. In terms of fatalities, across the two years, 39 toddlers shot themselves and, of these, 16 died as a result of the gun shot (the children were aged between one and three years old). Extending the figures to all children, the advocacy group, Everytown for Gun Safety, says the total number of child shootings in America in 2016 was 242 (as reported by The Metro).
Some of the cases have an air of tragedy. For example, in 2015, a two-year-old in South Carolina found a gun in the back seat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. A similar case occurred in 2016 when Patrice Price, a 26-year-old Milwaukee mother, was killed when her two-year-old son fired a handgun he had also found in the backseat of a car.
According to Time Magazine, in light of these figures, different solutions have been proposed. These include requiring guns be locked up at home; or developing smart guns that can only be fired by their owner. Time reports these suggestions are opposed by the National Rifle Association.
