This seemed like a big year for talk about guns and gun safety.
Of course, this was the year that Gov. Rick Scott of Florida signed a gun law, the first of its kind and since blocked by a U.S. judge, that attempted to limit the way that pediatricians could talk to parents about gun safety.
It was also a year with many gun and shooting accidents, which often involved children who found unsecured, loaded guns around the house, such as these recent incidents:
- a 2-year-old in Ocoee, Florida who remains in critical condition, and is likely brain dead, after she was shot in the head on the day after Christmas when her cousin's 22-caliber handgun accidentally fired, as he was putting it in a drawer in another room
- a 3-year-old in Denver who shot his brother in the chest with a Kel-Tech .32, a pistol with a small grip size and no safety, that a visitor to their apartment had left on a nightstand two days before Christmas
There have also been more than a few hunting accidents this week, including a 17-year-old in Alabama, who was shot in the leg when another hunter mistook him for a deer, a 16-year-old in New York who was shot when a friend's rifle accidentally went off as they were hunting coyotes, a 15-year-old in Pennsylvania who shot himself in the foot while hunting geese, a 13-year-old in Idaho who shot himself in the shoulder with his shotgun while duck hunting, and a 19-year-old in Minnesota, who died after being shot while goose hunting and being shot when a friends shotgun discharged.
We talk about gun safety a lot. This year, resolve to keep your kids safe around guns so that we don't have to talk about shooting accidents and tragedies next year.
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