Accident

It bears repeating: An accident is an unforeseen occurrence.

4-year-old boy dies after accidentally shooting himself in head: 'Heartbreaking tragedy'

The correct word is “incident”

For as long as people attribute accidents to Unforeseeable Incidents, for so long will small children shoot themselves to death and assign a lifetime of grief to their unwitting family members. Or in some cases we might say Witless Parents.

“…found the handgun under the driver's seat, police said.”

We know that children are programmed by survival, by instinct, by DNA to explore and discover the world. Of course a four-year old will look into every cavity in a car, touch every control, in a quest to be Just Like Mum and Dad

“It is important that gun owners know where their firearms are at all times, …”

Knowing where your firearms are obviously isn’t important. In this case had you asked the parents they would have been able to tell you that a firearm was under the car seat. Knowing where your guns are isn’t useful.

Locking up your guns, or better yet, not owning guns is a much better strategy.

And yes I know that residents of Davenport Florida will tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about; that I don’t know what it’s like to live in Davenport, or in Florida, or in the USA. Or be black.

I also won’t know what its; like to have a four-year old child of mine shoot themselves as the “family prepared to go out for pizza”

From the same article: “There were at least 411 unintentional shootings by children in 2023, marking the worst year on record since Everytown's tracking started in 2015. There were at least 360 unintentional shootings by children last year, causing 136 fatalities, according to Everytown. There have been at least 21 unintentional shootings so far this year, resulting in 11 deaths, Everytown said.”

I have a hundred dollars that says that every one of those deaths was no accident.

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