Dangers of improperly storing firearms

Reporter: Michelle Alvarez
Published: Updated:

Children are getting their hands on firearms in Southwest Florida and shooting them.

In April of last year, two kids under the age of 10 found a gun in a backpack as they sat in the backseat of a car near Fowler Street in Fort Myers.

One of them ended up dead.

In that case, Fort Myers police arrested a 15-year-old for leaving the gun behind.

Less than a month after that, two children found themselves in the same situation in Clewiston. A 5-year-old found a loaded gun and shot and killed a 4-year-old sibling.

The State Attorney’s Office has not said if anyone was arrested for the Clewiston shooting.

The most recent incident occurred on Sunday in Charlotte County, where a child got ahold of a gun and shot a 21-year-old. This time, the victim is expected to survive.

“These are the end results of tragedies, tragedies that shouldn’t happen,” said FGCU professor David Thomas, who is also a former police officer.

Thomas said the moral of these stories is not to trust children when guns are around.

“They have no idea the destructive power of what that firearm is capable of doing,” Thomas said. “If you have children, you have to go the extra mile.”

Florida law requires gun owners to put weapons in a safe, or have a trigger lock, when there are kids under 18 who might have access to a gun.

“Our kids are indoctrinated with violence, and they see their favorite character shot this week. And then next week, he’s back up, and he’s ready to go. So, there’s no correlation of what actually happens and how much damage actually occurs,” Thomas said.

WINK News Safety and Security Specialist Rich Kolko said some gun owners don’t lock up their guns or use a trigger lock.

“No matter how good you think you’ve hidden a gun in the house, kids have the ability to find it,” Kolko said.

In 2016, an injury epidemiology study found that 110 kids under 14 die each year from accidental shootings. That same study found close to two million kids live in homes where guns are not locked away or properly stored.

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