Deborah Paugh displays a picture of her son, Peter Lapa-Killy, who killed himself with a firearm in April 2012 after a misunderstanding with his longtime girlfriend. (Yinmeng Liu/MEDILL NSJI)
STORY + PHOTOS BY YINMENG LIU FOR THE MEDILL NSJI
WASHINGTON — Nearly 100 children in the U.S. die from unintentional gunshot wounds every year and more than two-thirds of the tragedies could have been prevented if parents had kept firearms locked away, a nonprofit “mom’s” group says.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a part of the umbrella Everytown For Gun Safety, an organization claiming more than 2.5 million members across the United States. The group, financed in part by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, was in to Washington to kick off its Be SMART campaign, urging gun owners to keep firearms out of the hands of little kids and teens by storing them safely.
“Since January, 2015, there have been at least 80 unintentional shootings involving children, resulting in 57 injuries and 24 deaths,” said Shannon Watts, an Indiana mother of five and a founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense.
The data come from a new tracking system the organization unveiled Monday at a National Press Club news conference. Called the #NotAnAccident Index, the system records children’s deaths by firearms misuse across the states by picking up reports from news outlets.
“A lot of unintentional or suicidal shootings are misclassified or undercounted,” said Watts. “Without the right numbers, we can’t understand the scope of the problem or even determine the best ways to prevent these avoidable tragedies.”
In northwest Indiana, Chesterton town manager Bernie Doyle said he believes adults should be responsible for educating children at an early age about the danger of firearms.
“The trigger lock mechanism should be used all the time. Otherwise, guns should be unloaded, and stored in a safe area in the house,” said Doyle, who is also a retired law enforcement officer and a former firearms instructor.
At the Washington event, Melissa Joan Hart, television director, and an actress who starred in the series Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, explained why she decided to appear in a Be SMART video on gun safety..
“My kids’ happiness and well-being is what matters most in life to me and that’s why I decided to get involved with Be SMART,” said Hart, who has three children.
Shannon Watts started Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America in Indianapolis in 2012, the day after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Connecticut. By 2015, the organization, launched on Facebook, grew to include a chapter in every state, according to Watts. Some of its members are moms of victims.
Dorothy Paugh, who’s from Baltimore, is one of them. In 2012, Paugh lost her son Peter Lapa-Lilly when the 25-year-old committed suicide after a misunderstanding with his girlfriend of five years.
Paugh said the majority of gun deaths in the country relate to suicide. “I have to think it has to do with the availability of guns in their house.” According to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, six out of every 10 firearms deaths in 2010 were suicides.
The moms’ organization recommended strategies in its Be SMART campaign for parents and other adults to follow to help prevent the loss of more kids to unintentional gunshots.
It recommends that states enforce stricter punishment for adult gun-owners who leave their firearms lying around. According to a June 214 report by the organization, 28 states, including Indiana, have a child access prevention law that charges an adult criminally if a child gains accesses to guns in a parent’s household.
Among the 28 states, three, California, Massachusetts and Minnesota, plus the District of Columbia, may charge an adult if a child “may” or “is likely” to access a carelessly stored gun. Eleven states could charge adults if a child gets hold of a stored gun.
Indiana and 13 other states can file charges only if an owner recklessly and intentionally hands a gun to a kid. According to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, 3,800 people died due to injuries caused by unintentional shootings between 2005 and 2010. Thirteen hundred of those who died were under age 25.
Jennifer Baker, spokeswoman for National Rifle Association, said in an email the NRA already educates on firearms accident prevention. Groups such as Moms Demand Action “exploit tragedies and use gun safety as nothing more than a talking point to further a political agenda that infringes on law-abiding citizens’ right to self-protection,” Baker said.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America describes itself as a grassroots movement advocating for gun safety measures that “respect” the Second Amendment to the Constitution.
