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According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer children are dying from unintentional gunfire. (AP Photo)

CDC: Fewer kids dying from accidental gunfire

BY Brandi Kruse  on March 14, 2012 @ 12:03 pm (Updated: 3:04 pm - 3/14/12 )

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According to the latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fewer children are dying from unintentional gunfire.

In 2009, the CDC reports 96 children under the age of 18 were killed by accidental gunfire nationwide. The number has been trending downward since 2006, when there were 125 deaths.

In Washington state, where two children have been accidentally shot to death in the past week, the average number of kids under 18 who die each year from unintended gunfire is one.

On Saturday, a 7-year-old girl was shot to death by her sibling inside a van in Stanwood, Wash. Her father, a Marysville police officer, had left a loaded firearm in the glove compartment of the family van.

On Monday in Tacoma, a 3-year-old boy shot and killed himself with a gun he found in the family car while it was stopped at a gas station.

The last time two kids were killed from accidental gunfire in this state in the same year was 2006.

According to the Washington State Department of Health, there are an average of nine children under the age of 18 hospitalized each year due to unintentional gunfire.

An 8-year-old girl remains hospitalized after she was critically injured at a Bremerton, Wash. elementary school in February when a 9-year-old classmate brought a handgun in his backpack. The gun accidentally discharged.

Brandi Kruse, KIRO Radio Reporter
Brandi Kruse is a reporter for KIRO Radio who is as spontaneous and adventurous in her free time as she is on the job. Brandi arrived at KIRO Radio in March 2011 and has already collected three regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her reporting.
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Comments (4)


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  • Drool wrote...
    Examples of Things not to Leave Around Kids for Stupid People
    March 14, 2012 1:22 pm
    Running automobile, running tractor (or any other kind of equipment), idling chain saw, plugged in circular saw, loaded firearm. Any of those things will kill a kid or other person in an instant if a kid gets hold of them.
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  • circuitfr wrote...
    exactly
    March 14, 2012 1:37 pm
    farm equipment kills kids every year, chainsaws, cars running over kids.....Gun Accidents are at the bottom of a very long list of things that cause accidental deaths.... Burbank is such a typical liberal.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Zoeller wrote...
    What- Are you serious,Drool and Circuitfr Said
    March 14, 2012 3:38 pm
    Yes,Yes and Yes!!!! Now maybe we just need to ban stupid people from having children. It is not the guns that kill children it is the stupid parents.....
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • 32coupe wrote...
    This is really BAD news...
    March 14, 2012 3:44 pm
    For the anti-2nd amendment folks like burbank, rosie odonnel (you know, the usual suspects). The death of one child is too many but guns aren't the prime culprits. There are probably some figures somewhere showing how many lives are saved by gun ownership. I recall one recently where a young single mother shot an intruder and in her mind she was protecting her young children. There was a story a couple of years ago of a young girl in Montana at home alone who shot a couple of illegals breaking into her home. She just happened to be a champion with a shotgun. Ooopps...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }