Another Day, Another "Accidental" Child Shooting Death
On Wednesday, a two-year-old Texas boy named Trenton Mathis accidentally shot and killed himself with a handgun he found sitting on his great-grandfather’s nightstand. According to the website of KLTV, Mathis had gone into his great-grandparents’ bedroom in search of chewing gum. Instead, he found a loaded 9 mm handgun, which he used to shoot himself in the face. Mathis was pronounced dead at a Tyler, Texas hospital. He would have turned three years old in July.
Trenton Mathis didn’t have to die. His senseless death is a direct result of this country’s baffling indifference toward the basic principles of gun safety. As I’ve written before, “accidental” child shooting deaths are almost never truly accidental. They happen because parents and guardians keep their guns loaded and unattended in unsecured locations where children can easily get to them. Mathis’ great-grandmother told KLTV that her husband thought he had locked and closed the door to the room where he kept his handgun. He was wrong.
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Yesterday, I wrote about Saylor Slone Martine, a 15-year-old Oklahoma girl who, last weekend, was shot and killed when a semi-automatic handgun owned by her parents accidentally discharged, hitting her in the head. Today, I’m writing about Trenton Mathis. By the time Monday rolls around, I’m sure there’ll be another name to add to the list of kids who might still be alive today if the adults in their lives had simply been paying attention. Kids like these:
• Neengnco Chong, a two-year-old Minnesota boy who was accidentally shot and killed in December by his four-year-old brother, with a handgun his father stored next to a mattress;
• Travin Varese, a two-year-old Louisiana boy who was accidentally shot and killed by his older brother in January;
• Skyler Daniel Boring, a 17-year-old Tennessee boy who was accidentally shot and killed earlier this week in what was apparently a “war game” gone wrong;
• Margaret “Maggie” Hollifield, a 10-year-old Virginia girl who was accidentally shot and killed at her home this month by an unnamed boy;
• Kinsler Davis, a two-year-old Texas boy who accidentally shot and killed himself earlier this month with a handgun he found hidden in his father’s bedroom. “All the information indicates this was a tragic accident,” the local police chief told the press.
Tragic? Absolutely. But none of these shootings are accidents.
Read More: http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/05/31/trenton_mathis_accidental_shooting_another_day_another_accidental_child.html
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The incidents where one child accidentally kills another actually have 2 innocent victims. How do you recover from that? 
