We Don't Have a Gun Problem; We Have a Toddler Problem

As Even The Liberal Washington Post recognizes:

This week a 2-year-old in South Carolina found a gun in the back seat of the car he was riding in and accidentally shot his grandmother, who was sitting in the passenger seat. This type of thing happens from time to time: A little kid finds a gun, fires it, and hurts or kills himself or someone else. These cases rarely bubble up to the national level except when someone, like a parent, ends up dead.

But cases like this happen a lot more frequently than you might think. After spending a few hours sifting through news reports, I've found at least 43 instances this year of somebody being shot by a toddler 3 or younger. In 31 of those 43 cases, a toddler found a gun and shot himself or herself....

The stories go on and on like this: Roughly once a week this year, on average, a small child has found a gun, pointed it at himself or someone else, and pulled the trigger....

These numbers are probably an undercount. There are likely instances of toddlers shooting people that result in minor injuries and no media coverage. And there are probably many more cases where a little kid inadvertently shoots a gun and doesn't hit anyone, resulting in little more than a scared kid and (hopefully) chastened parents.

While liberals use these incidents as an excuse to grab our guns, clearly the real culprit is a failure to detect and treat toddlers. Instead of demonizing guns in these incidents, we need a greater focus on toddlers.

Sadly, after this promising start, the WaPo ignores the logical conclusion and reverts to its liberal gun-grabbing ways:

But as Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates for stricter gun laws, argues, many incidents like this are preventable. In a study of accidental shootings by children of all ages (not just toddlers), they estimate that "more than two-thirds of these tragedies could be avoided if gun owners stored their guns responsibly and prevented children from accessing them."

There are policy and technical responses to preventable childhood gun deaths as well. States and localities could require guns to be locked up at home, a policy supported by 67 percent of Americans. Various types of smart gun technology, which prevent anyone other than their owners from firing a given gun, exist as well. But gun lock requirements and smart guns have been vehemently opposed by the National Rifle Association and its allies.

Typical.

Liberals like the WaPo deliberately ignore the obvious solution to this problem. Instead of exposing our toddlers to the hellish peril of gun-free zones, we need to make sure every kid in daycare is packing heat. Because after all, the only thing that can stop a bad toddler with a gun is a good toddler with a gun.