Three children, aged 4, 7, and 11 were shot and injured or killed when they found loaded guns today.  A fourth child, age 14, was shot and killed with a ghost gun he had built.

In Lexington, Kentucky, a four-year old was injured in a gun accident that police have determined was accidental. However, the circumstances of the accident have not been reported. The child is in critical condition and there is an ongoing investigation.

An Atlanta, Georgia seven-year old is in stable condition after being shot by a nine-year old sibling with a gun they found in the family car.  Their mother had gone into a Chipotle restaurant to pick up food at the time the accident occurred.

In San Antonio, Texas, an 11-year old girl and another child found a gun in a hallway of their apartment building. They were playing with it when the 11-year girl was shot in the shoulder.  She is “fighting to recover” at the hospital, according to the report.

And after a nearly two month investigation, Vero Beach, Florida police concluded that 14-year old boy was shot and killed by a 14-year old friend. Investigators said “the boy and two friends were in his bedroom playing with a 9mm handgun which the 14-year-old had assembled after ordering individual parts off the internet over the course of about a year.” They didn’t realize that the gun was loaded according to police. Although the boy’s mother apparently knew he was building a ghost gun, authorities declined to prosecute.

“My belief and what I teach is teach them as young as possible,” a Texas gunseller said. “They need to understand that real guns are real guns,” he added.  Perhaps he has not reviewed studies that show that gun education for young children may actually make them more dangerous rather than less dangerous when they encounter a gun.  Simply telling children that guns are dangerous may not, from an empirical standpoint, make them safer.

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