Reports of Unintended Gun Violence Collected from Media Reports Across the United States
Toddler Kills Self After Finding Unsecured Gun A two-year-old child died at the hospital, after finding an unsecured gun inside their home in Merced, California, and shooting themself in the face. The child’s father was arrested and charged with child endangerment resulting in death. And in Miami, Florida, a 15-year-old girl is in stable condition …
Two People Shot During Police Stop, and Toddler Fires Unsecured Gun Injuring One An investigatory police stop in Chicago, Illinois, resulted in a police officer and 16-year-old Marcus Gracey sustaining gunshot wounds from an unintentional discharge of a gun in Gracey’s possession. Officers noticed a gun in Gracey’s waistband while he was walking along a …
Two People Injured in Gun Accidents In Akron, Ohio, an eight-year-old boy was hospitalized in stable condition after being accidentally shot by another child. Police determined that the unsecured gun the child was handling when it fired was legally owned by their father. They continue to investigate. And outside a strip mall in National City, …
Boy is Killed, and Man Injures Self, in Unintentional Shootings Today The accidental shooting death of a 12-year-old boy happened in the family home in Moss Point, Mississippi. A pending autopsy report and lab results will be presented to a grand jury before officials release any other information. In downtown Gainesville, Georgia, a man unintentionally …
Two Men Injured in Gun Accidents Zachery James Hampton, age 26, unintentionally shot himself in the leg at a Walmart self checkout in Richfield, Utah. According to police, Hampton “was apparently adjusting the handgun that was being held in the waistband of his pants when it went off.” Several customers near Hampton, and potentially in …
Three People Shoot Themselves; Toddler Found Father’s Gun A 3-year-old in Detroit, Michigan, found his father’s unsecured gun and shot himself in the hand. The boy was treated at the hospital; the gun was recovered by police. Officials continue to investigate and will determine if the boy’s father will face any charges. According to a worker in …
Two People Struck by Stray Bullets, and Two Other People Injured During Attempted Robberies In Bronx, New York, a 13-year-old boy was walking to the playground with two younger cousins, when he was grazed in the forehead by a stray bullet. He was taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police are continuing to investigate. An altercation during …
One Dead, Two Wounded in Gun Accidents In Athens, Georgia, 32-year-old Casey Roy Hobbs was found dead in a pickup truck from what police say appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound. There was a 9mm pistol on the floorboard of the truck, and police speculate that the gun was in Hobbs’s waistband when it …
2-year-old boy is One of Six Victims of Four Gun Accidents A 2-year-old boy in Memphis, Tennessee, was shot in the arm by a 3-year-old relative. He is recovering at the hospital. A woman had asked a male friend to watch the children while she was not at home. Another woman who was inside the …
Eight-year-old Child is Shot and Killed with Unsecured Gun, and Four Other People are Hurt in Separate Unintentional Shootings A group of children found a loaded, unsecured gun in a home in Detroit, Michigan. It’s unclear what exactly happened once it was found, but the gun went off killing an eight-year-old. An adult has been …
Man is Unintentionally Shot During Traffic Stop As police were trying to arrest a man in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a handgun in his waistband unintentionally fired, striking him in the lower leg. The man drew the police’s attention when he had ignored a stop sign in a vehicle that had no license plate. During the …
Accidental Shootings Leave One Dead, Five Wounded In Columbia, South Carolina, a 7-year-old girl died from what is reported as an accidental shooting. She died at the hospital from a gunshot wound to her upper body. The incident is under investigation. One child accidentally shot another in Austin, Texas. The victim was transported to a …
Church Member Wounded after Sunday Service and Teen Hurt Mishandling a Gun After Sunday services in South Holland, Illinois, an innocent bystander was struck by gunfire that erupted in the church’s parking lot. The victim, a long-time church member, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. According to the pastor of the church, multiple …
Seven People Wounded in Unintentional Shootings With a stolen handgun that he thought made him “look cool,” a 14-year-old in Struthers, Ohio, unintentionally shot a 16-year-old in the stomach. The victim was taken to the hospital and is in stable condition. The 14-year-old was showing the gun to the victim, pretending to shoot it, when …
Three Gun Accidents in Cars Leave One Dead and Two Wounded In Desloge, Missouri, Kyle Walters, 25, was arrested after his 9mm pistol accidentally discharged in the back seat of a vehicle while waiting for food ordered at the local Jack in the Box. The round passed through the seat and struck and killed the driver …
No Charges to be Filed After 10-year-old Dies in Gun Accident The sheriff in Calhoun County, Mississippi announced that no charges will be filed after Oaklee Brasher, a 10-year-old boy, died in an accidental shooting today. No other information about the circumstances of the incident have been released. Four other shootings resulting in injuries …
In Goldsboro, North Carolina, a seven-year-old child was shot by an eight-year-old relative, but is expected to recover. There has been no report about how the children got the gun. Michael Howard-Owens of Chicago, Illinois, was in bed with his girlfriend and her three-year old son, when his gun, which was in his waistband, accidentally …
Four people accidentally shot themselves with their own guns today. All are expected to survive. The incidents happened at a Pocatello, Idaho mall, in the bathroom of a Nashville, North Carolina Domino’s pizza store, in a car traveling on I-94 near Detroit, Michigan, and in a remote conservation area near Tioga, New York, where a …
A Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 13-year old was shot and injured when a gun discharged while it was in his waistband or pants pocket. No word on how he got the gun. A 31-year old San Antonio, Texas man shot himself in the buttocks when a round he fired in the air apparently returned nearly to earth. …
We recently posted on the likely impact of the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Rifle and Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen on gun safety. In Bruen, the Supreme Court ruled that all “law-abiding” Americans have a Second Amendment right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense. Several states quickly responded by considering or …
Zyon Williams, 19, of Clovis, New Mexico told police he was walking with two of his friends with his grandmother’s 9mm XD pistol tucked into the waistband of his pants. He was playing with the pistol as he approached the building where Shammiel Kirven, age 17, was standing and he pointed it at her. The gun …
The Supreme Court ruled today, in New York Rifle and Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, that all “law-abiding” Americans have a right to carry a gun outside the home for self-defense. This will have very serious implications and, as its most near-term consequence, will likely eliminate existing gun license procedures in at least five states. Perhaps …
Witnesses to a Duluth, Minnesota bar fight and surveillance video confirms “that two men were fighting two other men when a gun fell out of a man’s waistband. When a bystander attempted to grab the gun, it fired and the victim was shot in the foot.” The shooting remains under investigation but police say “there …
For the second day in a row, a law enforcement officer was shot in a training accident. A correction officer requalifying on her weapon at a training facility in Cedar Grove, New Jersey was reportedly struck in the buttocks when her weapon misfired. Her name was not released and she is expected to be OK. …
In Granite Quarry, North Carolina, a middle school student shot and killed himself when he “mishandled a gun” that he thought was unloaded. At this time, the family has asked for privacy and we ask for everyone to keep the family in thoughts and prayers,” the local police chief said. “We have no further releasable …
For the third day in a row, a baby was shot when an adult mishandled a gun. In this instance, a one year old Winston-Salem, North Carolina girl was shot in the hand by one of her parents. She was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive. Also today, Shawn Santiago, a 39-year …
A Houston, Texas 23-year old was accidentally shot and killed by her boyfriend today. Houston police concluded that the man had removed a pistol from his waistband and was unloading the gun when it went off. Their determination was apparently based on witness statements. There is no report about whether the trigger was pulled in …
All over the country today, people were injured, in some cases critically, in gun accidents. The available news reports make it difficult to separate those who were engaged in unsafe practices from those who were injured based on lack of safety features on their guns. In most cases, accidents can presumably be attributed to both …
Two men shot themselves in the leg today while holstering their guns, one in Nebraska and one in Ohio. Neither injury is considered life threatening, but both accidents would have been prevented by guns with external manual safeties, had they been deployed. A 33-year old Scottsbluff, Nebraska man was placed in a tourniquet by police …
At Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, Georgia, a city plagued with recent gun violence, police responded to shots fired inside the Neiman Marcus store. Police concluded that “the gunfire was the result of a person walking through the store and adjusting his pants when the firearm he had in his waistband went off.” No one …
When a Kansas City, Kansas man lost control of his motorbike and crashed, a gun in his waistband fired and struck him in the hip. He was then also struck by another vehicle whose driver fled the scene of the accident. Police arriving at the scene discovered a bag of methamphetamine in a compartment of …
At least three children were shot in separate gun accidents today. Two were wounded. One was killed. In Senatobia, Mississippi, a two-year old girl found a loaded gun and shot herself. She is being treated at a local hospital and is in stable condition. The incident is being reported as an “accidental discharge.” It is …
A 28-year old in Wichita, Kansas was injured when a gun tucked into his waistband accidentally fired. He was shot in the leg and taken to the hospital with a serious injury. Source: Michael Stavola, “Accidental and Self-inflicted Shooting at Towne East Square, Official Says,” Kansas.com (October 17, 2020).
Three individuals shot themselves in the lower body today in various handgun accidents. A toddler is severely injured, a man is dead, and another appears to have lost his ability to reproduce. A three-year old in Jupiter Inlet, Florida gained access to his uncle’s handgun and shot himself in the thigh and hand. He is …
In a variety of jurisdictions across the country today, accidental gunshot wounds sent people to the hospital, where staff are already struggling to find sufficient resources to manage the coronavirus epidemic. Among the accidents was one in Ormond Beach, Florida, where a 22-year old man was shot in the leg when a .22 caliber rifle …
In Bloomington, Indiana, both four-year old Tripp Shaw and his father, Tyler, were shot in the head after the father’s gun accidentally discharged. After several days in the hospital, Tripp died of his wounds. His father was expected to recover. According to authorities, the father and son were play-wrestling on a bed when a gun …
18-year old Jacarie Mozell accidentally shot and injured himself in Ocala, Florida today. According to witnesses, Mr. Mozell was putting a gun in his waistband when it discharged. At the time of the report, Mr. Mozell was recovering at a local hospital. Source: Austin L. Miller, “Ocala PD: Injured Man Apparently Shot Himself,” Ocala Star …
A 15-year old Jasper, Georgia boy was struck by shrapnel at a Walmart when Pickens County Sheriff Donnie Craig’s pistol accidentally discharged during a “Shop with the Sheriff” event at the store. The boy’s injuries were minor. According to the Sheriff’s office, the gun was in the sheriff’s waistband went it went off. The bullet …