Slowpoke_Rodrigo
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Miami toddler killed by gunshot in home
Updated 11:58 AM ET March 24, 2000
MIAMI (Reuters) - A three-year-old Miami girl died after she apparently shot herself with a gun she found in her home, police said Friday.
Police said the father of Alisha Jackson told them she shot herself with a pistol she found in the house Thursday evening. An investigation was underway and the death had not yet been classified, police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella said.
As many as 20 children under the age of five die every year in the United States from unintentional shootings in the home, according to statistics from gun control advocates.
The distraught father, Tary Jackson, telephoned the police after the shooting and was hugging the girl when a unit arrived.
"We found her with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. He said she was playing with the gun," Fonticiella said.
She was airlifted to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Neighbors quoted by local media said Jackson had been chatting to friends in his front yard moments before the shooting. It was not clear who the gun belonged to.
The shooting comes at a time of national debate over gun safety, fueled by a series of mass shootings in U.S. schools and workplaces.
Last week Smith & Wesson, the country's biggest handgun manufacturer, agreed to install child trigger locks and develop technology to prevent anyone but a gun's owner from firing it. In response the government dropped the threat of a costly lawsuit against the company.
Gun control advocates say that almost 1,000 Americans die every year from unintentional shootings in the home, and that in 1997, the latest year for which statistics are available, 306 children up to the age of 19 were killed in such circumstances.
The Washington-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, which fights for stronger gun laws, said that in 1997 20 children aged between one and four were killed by unintentional shootings.
"These sad tragedies happen too often. Many of these tragedies could be prevented if guns were stored more securely. The risk of having guns in the home are enormous," said David Bernstein, a spokesman for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
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Miami toddler killed by gunshot in home
Updated 11:58 AM ET March 24, 2000
MIAMI (Reuters) - A three-year-old Miami girl died after she apparently shot herself with a gun she found in her home, police said Friday.
Police said the father of Alisha Jackson told them she shot herself with a pistol she found in the house Thursday evening. An investigation was underway and the death had not yet been classified, police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella said.
As many as 20 children under the age of five die every year in the United States from unintentional shootings in the home, according to statistics from gun control advocates.
The distraught father, Tary Jackson, telephoned the police after the shooting and was hugging the girl when a unit arrived.
"We found her with a fatal gunshot wound to the chest. He said she was playing with the gun," Fonticiella said.
She was airlifted to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Neighbors quoted by local media said Jackson had been chatting to friends in his front yard moments before the shooting. It was not clear who the gun belonged to.
The shooting comes at a time of national debate over gun safety, fueled by a series of mass shootings in U.S. schools and workplaces.
Last week Smith & Wesson, the country's biggest handgun manufacturer, agreed to install child trigger locks and develop technology to prevent anyone but a gun's owner from firing it. In response the government dropped the threat of a costly lawsuit against the company.
Gun control advocates say that almost 1,000 Americans die every year from unintentional shootings in the home, and that in 1997, the latest year for which statistics are available, 306 children up to the age of 19 were killed in such circumstances.
The Washington-based Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, which fights for stronger gun laws, said that in 1997 20 children aged between one and four were killed by unintentional shootings.
"These sad tragedies happen too often. Many of these tragedies could be prevented if guns were stored more securely. The risk of having guns in the home are enormous," said David Bernstein, a spokesman for the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence.
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Slowpoke Rodrigo...he pack a gon...
Vote for the Neal Knox 13