US 3-year-old kills older sister with handgun | Inquirer News

US 3-year-old kills older sister with handgun

/ 03:59 PM March 14, 2023

handgun

AFP PHOTO

HOUSTON — 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 three-year-old gained access to a loaded, semi-automatic pistol,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said of the shooting late Sunday.

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When family members heard a single gunshot, they ran into a bedroom and found the four-year-old girl on the floor “unresponsive,” he said.

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Gonzalez stressed that the shooting appeared unintentional.

“It just seems like another tragic story of a child gaining access to a firearm and hurting someone else,” Gonzalez said.

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About 40 percent of US households have guns, according to the Pew Research Center, with most of those also including children.

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But less than half of the households with guns store them safely, according to Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public Health.

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More than 44,000 firearm deaths were reported last year across the United States.

Shootings were a leading cause 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.

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Texas, with 30 million residents, is one of the easiest places in the country to acquire a gun and they can be carried in public without restriction.

“This is very preventable,” Gonzalez said of the shooting Sunday.

“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,” he said.

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TAGS: Children, Homicide, United States, weapons

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