1-Year-Old in Critical Condition After Toddler Brother Shoots Her

[left-of-center2012]

Police in Atlanta, Georgia are investigating after they said a one-year-old girl was accidentally shot by her brother on Friday. Police responded to a call around 4 p.m. Friday and found a one-year-old girl "who appeared to have been shot," according to a description of the incident posted online by the Atlanta Police Department.

The child was transported to the hospital and is in critical condition, according to police.
The department stated that the preliminary investigation found the incident was a "tragic accident."

Police said while the child's mother was upstairs, and the baby was downstairs with her older brother, at some point, the brother found a gun and it went off, injuring his sister. The brother is only a few years older than his infant sister, the station reported.

"Investigators responded to the scene and are investigating to determine the circumstances surrounding the incident, to include where the firearm came from and who it belongs to," they added.

Police said the investigation is ongoing. Police are reminding gun owners to make sure their firearms are secured.

https://www.newsweek.com/1-year-old-critical-condition-after-toddler-brother-shoots-her-police-1658515

[Scrivener7]

1. Arrest the parents and the owner of the gun. Charge them with assault.

[Ziggysmom]

2. Stop calling this shit a tragic accident. It's pure negligence.

Make all gun-owning parents criminally liable for shootings and crimes committed with their firearms by their children.

[Deuxcents]

3. A toddler can shoot a gun?

Somethings ..a lot of things aren’t right with this..

[stopdiggin]

5. clearly can

but there would have to be a chambered round, hammer back, safety off (if the gun has one) - then it's simply a matter of pulling a trigger. Could a toddler chamber a round unassisted? Perhaps - if he/she had seen the action performed several times by an adult.

[70sEraVet]

4. Crap! Towards the end of the article, it describes other similar incidents in the last month

These aren't "tragic accidents"! This is a horrible pattern of wilful child endangerment!
One of the incidents mentioned in the article, the gun that was fired by a three-year old had been hidden UNDER A COUCH CUSHION!
PEOPLE NEED TO GO TO PRISON!

[Thunderbeast]

6. Why are people alarmed?

Many of those who see a handgun as protection from home invasion (a rare crime that is over-played by news and entertainment media) see no point in owning a gun if it is not loaded and available to use. They are convinced of their infallibility in their cleverness in hiding weapons from their children.

I know a family who's nine year old son found a hunting rifle in his parent's closet. The ammunition was under the bed of his 13 year-old brother. He found both. While playing one afternoon, he shot and killed his 6 year-old sister.

The scars left on both brothers manifested itself in addiction and prison. They, too, never recovered as adults.
The parents were never held criminally accountable, but the local DA (in a politically inspired publicity grab) spent years attempting to charge the child with murder.

The NRA's "good guy with a gun" trope kills more innocents than criminals every year. We are seeing stories of children discharging firearms every week.

Our nation's gun fetish is insane.

[elias7]

7. Let any private citizen sue the gun owner