Baby fatally shot by toddler in Texas – latest shooting involving children

A baby was fatally shot by a toddler in a car parked outside a San Antonio medical center, authorities said accidental shooting involving children.

A woman, a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old and a toddler were all in a parked SUV outside the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center, authorities said in a news conference, according to CBS affiliate KENS. There was a loaded long gun “in the back of the vehicle,” Police Chief William McManus said, and one of the toddlers grabbed the gun and fired it, hitting and killing the 10- or 11-month-old infant.

Police have not said who the gun belongs to. No charges were filed.

Such shootings have increased in recent years. Hundreds of young children have been killed while playing with guns in the United States over the past two decades, according to a report Study published in 2023 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that most of these deaths were preventable because they involved weapons that were kept unlocked and loaded.

According to other CDC data, unintentional gun deaths accounted for about a quarter of all gun deaths in children under 10 during that period.

Such shootings are most likely to happen at home, CBS News previously reportedand they are most likely handguns.

There were at least 36 unintentional child shootings in Texas in 2023, according to Everytown. Fourteen of those shootings were fatal. A record number of children died in accidental shootings this year, according to Everytown. In 411 incidents, 158 people died and 269 were injured.

While federal law in most cases prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from owning a handgun, not all states have laws requiring the safe storage of a weapon. In Texas, there are no specific state laws about how firearms should be stored, but it “is unlawful to store, transport or abandon an unsecured firearm in a location where children are likely to be present and have access to the firearm,” it says in state laws.