On Wednesday, a 2-year-old boy in Indianapolis found a gun in his mother’s purse, which was on a kitchen counter, and somehow shot himself to death.
Friday, reports indicate that at least seven people—five adults and two children—were found shot to death on a piece of property in southern Ohio.* One local TV station says the seven victims were related; it’s not clear whether the perpetrator of the shooting is among the dead.
These events are tragic, but not unusual. According to the Gun Violence Archive, 166 children 11 or younger have been killed or injured by guns in the United States thus far in 2016. In fact, when I went to the archive’s site to look up that number, I found stories about a 1-year-old in Missouri who died after being shot on Thursday, a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old who were shot and killed by their father in Texas on Tuesday, and a 1-year-old and a 4-year-old who were shot and killed by their father in Florida on Monday. This stuff isn’t even “news” anymore, really. Why am I even writing about it?
*Update, April 22, 2:55 p.m.: Initial, unofficial accounts said that five children and two adults had died; law enforcement authorities now say there at least seven victims, of whom five are adults and two are children.
