PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The number of kids getting hold of guns and unintentionally shooting either themselves or other kids is drastically increasing. In 2019, two children were involved in unintentional shootings. In 2021, about a dozen kids unintentionally shot themselves or another kid — and about two-dozen have every year since.
In March, a 4-year-old boy picked up a gun and shot himself in the stomach. In January, a 5-year-old shot himself in the leg. And on Saturday, 3-year-old Kayden Barnes was shot in the eye and later died. Investigators believe she accidentally shot herself with her father’s gun.
Authorities have still not announced whether charges will be filed against her father.
“Kids are naturally curious,” says Scott Charles, a trauma outreach manager for Temple University Hospital.
“Small kids as young as 2 can apply enough pressure to a trigger to fire a gun,” he said. “And it’s often the case that small children will look down the barrel of the gun, because they are curious.
“And while they are pulling the trigger, they are not expecting a bullet is going to come out of the barrel. And that is why so many children, as we saw recently here in Philadelphia, unintentionally shoot themselves in the head.”
The hospital gives out free gun locks through the Safe Bet program.
"It’s imperative that we keep guns out of the reach of children, and the best way to do that is to keep them in a gun safe, but we provide gun locks, because sometimes gun safes are beyond the ability of people to buy them,” Charles said.
“The purpose of the gun locks [is] to reduce the likelihood that young people — particularly young people — will get their hands on firearms and unintentionally shoot themselves.”
Charles started the program after seeing the need, through social media posts and reaching out to the Philadelphia Police Department to kickstart free gun lock giveaways.
“The cable locks that we use are 15-inch cable locks. They can be used on handguns. They can be used on shotguns. They can be used on rifles.”
So far Safe Bet has given away 10,000 locks. And the program is now expanding, with new grant money from the state.
“We are going to start a campaign where we are going to be conducting workshops in communities where we know there are high rates of gun violence; reaching out to those concerned family members who might have a gun lying around the house, who find it unaffordable to buy a gun safe,” Charles said.
“And we are going to be providing them biometric gun safes, so that they can keep those guns safe and secure in their homes.”
To get a gun lock through the Safe Bet program, go to templesafetynet.org for more information.
Law enforcement agencies are holding a free gun lock giveaway on Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. at New Journey Christian Center, 1001 East Chelten Ave., in Philadelphia, near where Kayden Barnes was shot.