Detroit Prosecutor Takes Tough Stance on Guns After Accidental Child Shootings

Detroit Prosecutor Kym Worthy is calling on mandatory classes for gun owners and for "smart-gun" technology

Detroit’s prosecutor wants firearm owners to secure their weapons, citing a wave of accidental shootings by children, NBC News reports.

Eight children have killed or been seriously injured with unsecured guns Wayne County, according to Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Most of the guns were legally owned by people who didn’t secure them, even though Michigan requires gun dealers to include a lock or safe-storage container with all sales.

Worthy wants to hold a meeting with hospital executives to plan a campaign to teach gun-owning parents how to keep their kids safe.

Laws requiring safe-storage have led to a decline in accidental shooting deaths nationally. But researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found a higher rate of these deaths in seven states that didn’t have safe-storage laws.

Since 2001, 868 children aged 14 and under have been killed nationally in accidental shootings and an estimated 10,543 children were injured during the same period, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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