The third child shooting in four days in Houston prompted Sheriff Adrian Garcia to promise a serious push to give away gun locks and to preach gun safety at every public meeting, reports the Houston Chronicle. “I beg of you, help us to keep from having to respond to tragedy that can be prevented,” Garcia told a news conference after his deputies responded to a home where a 6-year-old had been shot by his brother. “I don’t want another family to even have to fathom going through this terrible experience.”
As gun issues go, preventing access by children rarely gets the publicity that Second Amendment fights do. The three local incidents were a poignant reminder that a small percentage who die every year carry special significance because they are children whose deaths would not have happened had adults close to them done what common sense, and often the law, call for. The weapons in these cases, all pistols, were found in a purse, backpack and under a bed. “Guns are very attractive to young children,” said Jon Vernick of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. “Parents who think that their children don’t know where they ‘hide’ their gun in the house are asking for trouble. That is quite a gamble to take.”