Because there are 390 million guns already present in the United States, it is clear that the only practical way forward is a relentless focus on preventing gun violence before it happens. Evidence-based suicide prevention programs and well-funded community-based gun violence intervention projects are two prongs of the necessary three-pronged approach. The third is reevaluation and strengthening of gun safety protocols including gun safety training, making the gun industry responsible for gun safety, and mandating and enforcing safe storage practices. These last issues are the focus of this journal.
We can no longer expect to limit gun possession in the United States in order to eliminate gun violence. Given the recent increase in gun purchases, it’s not even clear that we can reduce or slow the introduction of legal guns into American homes. What we can and must do instead is to focus on making the existing population of guns as well as new guns safer and less lethal. Reassertion of regulatory authority over gun safety training, gun sales and gun design is essential to public safety.
First, Some Comments on the Content of this Blog
There are now well over 1,000 daily entries here, cataloging more than 2000 incidents of unintentional gun violence. There are multiple posts from every state and the District of Columbia.
250 posts involve unintentional shootings involving children five years of age or younger. More than 320 posts involve children who found loaded guns in their home. Of approximately 20 children who shot a parent unintentionally, 12 were age five or under. And at least 37 parents unintentionally shot their own child. 10 posts describe incidents in which adult Americans shot a sibling and 88 children shot a brother or sister. Relatedly, at least 40 Americans shot a friend or loved one in the mistaken belief that they were acting in emergency self-defense.
Guns are regularly accidentally fired through a buillding or apartment wall striking a victim in another room. People have accidents with guns they carry in vehicles, 62 blog posts involve police or accidents during police actions, 24 describe accidents at a shooting range; and at least 44 describe hunting accidents. In short, gun accidents occur in every context in which a person carries a gun, including situations involving long-time, well-trained gun users.
All of the incidents covered in the journal result in trauma to someone: the victims themselves, a family member, the unintentional shooters who shoot a loved one, police who respond to horrific scenes, or to children who lose a parent, a sibling or a friend.
Some representative incidents from the last year
Wyatt Luczak, an Indiana two-year-old, died on July 17, 2022 after finding a loaded gun at home and shooting himself. Following a month-long investigation, no charges were filed. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family,” the prosecutor said.
Jesse Porter, 58, a retired Washington, D.C. police lieutenant, shot and killed Maurica Manyan, age 25, a woman who worked as a special police officer in the D.C. Public Library’s public safety division. Porter shot Manyan on August 4, 2022 just after a police training that Porter had been conducting at the Anacostia Public Library. According to the report, Porter thought he was using a “training gun” at the time of the incident.
Michael Mendoza, of Gastonville, North Carolina, age 4, died on December 13, 2022 after he and a sibling found a loaded gun on the living room table. Michael’s parents were charged with felony involuntary manslaughter, felony child abuse and a misdemeanor charge of storing a firearm in a manner accessible to a minor.
On February 27, 2022, four-year-old Miyell Hernandez of Lithonia, Georgia, found a loaded gun in his mother’s car while she was at the grocery store and shot and killed himself. Miyell was waiting in the car with two other children when the accident occurred. Police later offered thoughts and prayers.
Why choose an anecdotal approach?
I have previously written about the reason for an anecdotal approach to gun safety. Among other things, the emotional impact of bare statistics is limited. There is no one place, other than this blog, to review the facts of the multitudinous daily reports of published gun safety problems because they are generally carried in local news sources, often with minimal details. Nor is there a way to easily understand the common patterns and irresponsible behaviors that lead to these traumatic incidents.
Equally importantly, it has long been known that accurate information about the number of unintentional shootings in the United States is unavailable. The number of injuries that are caused when a gun goes off unintentionally are almost certainly underreported, because data is limited to collection of information in connection with hospital visits. Many gunshot victims undoubtedly treat their minor injuries at home in order to avoid the embarrassment of describing the incident in a hospital setting and the risk of a law enforcement inquiry.
There is also no way to accurately track the number of times a gun goes off without the shooter intending to fire, when no one is struck. It stands to reason that for every time someone is standing in harm’s way when a gun is accidentally fired, there are ten incidents in which, by the luck of fate, there is no injury. Because no data source captures these incidents and they are almost never reported in the news, it is impossible to know how often a gun fires when dropped, a shooter pulls a trigger in the false belief that there is no round in the chamber, or a hunter shoots and barely misses someone else in the woods who they’ve mistaken for prey. In short, the fact that there are so many reported accidents and injuries with guns means that unsafe behavior with guns is predictably common.
Local Media Coverage
Local media rarely does a thorough job of covering unintentional shootings. Some reports are so minimal that they lack even the barest details of the incident. Reporters on tight deadlines often rely almost exclusively on police sources or court records and those sources frequently withhold important details out of “respect” for the victims or their families.
Better stories will sometimes include a paragraph or two on the impact of unintended gun violence on relatives or offer gun safety tips intended to prevent future accidents. As often as not, gun safety advice reflects the bias of a chosen gun expert, including, limited or wrong advice if the “expert” is involved in the gun industry. If it is simply not good enough to advise readers to put guns out of the reach of children, for example. Safe storage has to involve a secure gun lock or a gun safe when the gun is not under the control of its owner.
Reporters rarely investigate to get more details on an unintentional shooting that emerge only in the days and weeks after the shooting occurs. Only the most gruesome incidents appear to merit a follow-up. Thus, we never learn of a shooting’s consequences, whether it results in a criminal conviction, or causes otherwise unreported trauma.
Nor do reporters tend to report specific elements of an unintended shooting. Why did a shooter believe that the gun they fired was unloaded, a detail which is commonly noted, but rarely explained? Did the gun have a loaded chamber indicator? Was the magazine removed? These are important questions that might inform the public about the value of safer gun designs. Similarly, the make and model of a gun that fires when dropped or when being loaded into a vehicle, if reported, would help identify gun defects for which the gun manufacturer bears responsibility. Finally, it would be useful to report whether the gun had been recently purchased so that the public can learn more about the risks caused by new and inexperienced gun owners. At a minimum, safety training curricula and live fire training requirements could be expanded and improved.
Stolen guns also seem to be a vector for unintended gun violence, just as they are intentional shootings. The circumstances of the theft might suggest additional negligent behavior as, for example, when guns are improperly stored in cars.
Finally, as with everything in American society, there appears to be significant racial bias in how gun accidents are reported. Far more often there is a picture of a shooter or a parent accompanying the news story if that person is black, than if the subject is white.
That bias also appears to be reflected in law enforcement charging decisions. Although the race of the victim is not always clear in reports of unintended shootings, when it is specified in the reporting or identifiable from a published photo, the reader more often learns that the shooter has been charged with a crime if the shooter is black. Similarly, when a child finds a gun, it appears far more likely to be reported that a parent has been charged with neglect or abuse. News reports, of course, may only reflect bias in the criminal justice system, but a data-driven study on these issues is warranted.
A Note on Nomenclature
Many in the gun violence prevention community argue against acknowledging that unintentional gun violence can ever be “accidental.” The basis for this argument is that there is negligence or recklessness behind all unintentional shootings. In their view, using the term “accident” lets those who are culpable in connection with an unintended shooting off the hook.
The author of this blog, a lawyer and longtime consumer protection advocate, has declined to make this distinction, using the term “unintentional shooting” and “gun accident” somewhat interchangeably. There are two reasons for this choice.
First, negligence and recklessness frequently contribute to incidents that we treat as “accidental” in both the civil and criminal context. If I fall off a ladder, it is likely because I placed it against my house in a negligent or reckless way. That doesn’t make the result any less accidental. Similarly, “car accidents,” in common parlance, almost always result from negligence or recklessness. Criminal consequences nevertheless often follow.
Second, this blog is intended not just to influence policy choices, but also for people who own guns. One assumption behind the blog is that even responsible gun owners sometimes make mistakes. With few exceptions, the blog attempts to avoid demonizing those whose negligence or recklessness leads to an unintentional shooting, both in recognition of their trauma, and to allow for a dialogue about gun safety. Indeed, the most common victims of gun safety transgressions are friends, family members, and relatives of gun owners. We thus share a common interest in improved protocols for gun safety.
Some Additional Thoughts
It is clear that most gun owners are wholly responsible, familiar with important gun safety practices, and experienced in using their guns wisely and carefully. Tens of millions of rounds are safely fired across America every week. Often it is these experienced gun owners who best know the consequences of unsafe choices with a dangerous tool; of the consequences of theft, and of leaving guns around the house where children can find them.
But, as with ladders, toasters, child cribs and cars, regulators cannot assume that all guns are safely and responsibly used. We need, as a society, to have responsible gunowners join with regulators and the gun violence prevention community to function as an adult in room, to mandate proper gun safety training, to address unsafe gun designs and to protect our loved ones. Working together to avoid gun violence, whether intended or not, has benefits to us all.