Missouri has weak gun storage laws despite high death rate
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A 12-year-old boy was shot and killed Tuesday by his 10-year-old brother while they were playing with a gun in north St. Louis.
KMOV-TV reported that the police said that one of the boys' parents was at the house getting a haircut during the incident. The shooting is just the latest in a string lately that involves children and guns. In another, a murder-suicide involving two cousins took place on Friday. The two kids were in the middle of a livestream when the event occurred.
In February, a 12-year-old girl accidentally shot herself in the stomach in St. Louis.
A 3-year-old and 4-year-old girl were unintentionally shot at home when they found an unsecured, loaded firearm in one of their parent's coats in Spanish Lake, Missouri.
According to a study published in the Journal of Urban Health, 4.6 million children in America live in households with at least one gun that is loaded and unlocked, and an average of 125 unintentional gun-related deaths occur in children and teens. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens between the ages of 1 and 19 in the U.S.
On average nearly 1,300 children die and 5,790 are treated for gunshot wounds a year, the CDC says.
Missouri has the fifth-highest rate of gun-related homicides in the U.S. and the state doesn't have laws that require safe storage of firearms. Missouri currently only prohibits people from illegally giving firearms to minors, and doesn't penalize parents for negligently storing or leaving firearms with children around.
Only three states in America require new handgun models to have childproofing features.
Everytown reported in February that there have been 51 unintentional shootings by children with 17 deaths and 28 injuries 2022 in the U.S. Missouri accounts for two of those shootings and three injuries.
Groups like Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Nationwide Children's Hospital are working to educate the public on how to safely store guns to prevent accidental shootings from occurring.
