3-Year-Old Girl Gets Hold of Gun at Home, 'Unintentionally' Shoots and Kills 4-Year-Old Sister

gun safety Gun Safety at Home Child gets access to loaded gun at home child unintentionally shot and killed sibling unsecured loaded gun at home public calling for charges against parents responsible gun owner secure weapons firearm-related injury leading cause of death among individuals in America number one reason for death among children top four causes of mortality in the US

By Jo Anne Hubert , Parent Herald Mar 14, 10:58 am

Another toddler got access to a loaded gun at home. This time it resulted in the death of her sibling. The heartbroken yet at the same time outraged public is now asking how many more lives need to end before a solution is found.

A three-year-old girl "unintentionally" shot and killed her four-year-old sister Sunday night after finding an "unsecured" and loaded semi-automatic pistol in their Houston apartment.

According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, the preliminary investigation showed that the two toddlers were with five family members and friends inside an apartment at 9955 Bammel North Houston. Parents of both children individually thought that the other was watching the kids. The kids were left unsupervised.

The people in the apartment heard a gunshot and ran into the bedroom where the kids were. They found one child who accidentally shot the other and the injured child unresponsive. Parents immediately called 911.

Further, the four-year-old was "pronounced deceased at the scene," Gonzalez stated in the press release on Twitter.

@HCSOTexas units responded to an apt unit at 9955 Bammel North Houston. Preliminary info: two toddlers were inside the unit with other persons. One toddler (3 yrs) gained access to a firearm and unintentionally shot the other (4 yrs). The toddler was pronounced
1/2 pic.twitter.com/AdXDgZ6bzF
— Ed Gonzalez (@SheriffEd_HCSO) March 13, 2023

Parents need to be held accountable, public express

Whether charges will be pressed against any parent or the adults on the scene, the authorities said it would be the district attorney's decision. The sheriff also stated that the investigation is ongoing; thus, no final decision has been made. However, he stressed that in incidents like this, it is "very likely" that someone will face charges for failing to secure a loaded weapon at home.

"You've got to make sure you're a responsible gun owner. Secure your weapons in a safe place. It's got to be more than just telling the kids not to touch the weapons," Gonzalez, who called the incident both "tragic" and "very preventable," warned and reminded parents and gun owners, as quoted by ABC News.

People on Twitter expressed their sadness as well as outrage over the incident. One commenter simply asked, "How many more?" while others pushed that parents or responsible adults should be charged as they need to be held accountable.

Firearm, leading cause of death in the US

This shooting incident is just one of the latest and alarming instances of a kid getting access to an unsecured firearm and causing fatality. The most prominent were that of a six-year-old boy in Newport News, Virginia, who brought a gun to school and shot his elementary school teacher in their classroom in front of other kids, and a three-year-old boy from Volusia County, Florida, who found a gun in his parent's nightstand and accidentally shot and killed himself.

According to CNN, in a 2022 research published in The New England Journal of Medicine, firearm-related injury has recently surpassed motor vehicle crashes and is now the leading cause of death among individuals from one to 19 years old in America. Further, the US stands alone in this matter among world powers.

A Kaiser Family Foundation study revealed last year that in no other country as large and wealthy as America are deaths caused by firearms in the top four causes of mortality, let alone the number one reason for death among children.