title:  Four-Year-Old Dies After Finding Loaded Gun At Friend’s Home (VIDEO)
text: A four-year-old Iowa boy died as the result of a gunshot injury on June 18.According to KWWL, the boy and his mother were visiting a friend s home in Elgin at the time of the shooting. The two women had stepped outside, leaving the four-year-old and a second child inside the home to play.The unidentified preschooler found the loaded gun and reportedly shot himself in the face.Neither of the women had a cell phone to call 911. The boy s mother ran across the street for help.KWWL reports that several members of the local community rushed to the child s aid. A local business owner attempted to perform CPR, but the boy was not breathing.He was rushed by ambulance to Palmer Hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.According to police, the gun belonged to the owner of the home who was not present at the time of the child s death.So far this year 263 children under the age of 11 have died from a gunshot injury. Another 1,336 children between the ages of 12 and 17 have also been killed by guns. You can read their names and learn their stories here.No matter how many times we read about children who are injured or killed by improperly stored guns, careless and irresponsible gun owners still leave loaded weapons within easy reach of four-year-olds.If you ask republicans they ll tell you these are just  tragic accidents.  They ll say there s no one to blame and there s nothing that can be done to prevent it from happening over and over again.That s not the truth. According to Children s Defense Fund,  U.S. children and teens are 32 times more likely to die from a gun homicide and 10 times more likely to die from a gun suicide or a gun accident than all their peers in the other high-income countries combined. The statistics tell us that we re doing something wrong, while countries that have enacted sane gun laws, like many of those located in the UK, are doing something right.Protecting the most vulnerable members of society is right, no matter what the NRA or their republican lapdogs in Congress say.Here s more on this story from KWWL.KWWL   Eastern Iowa Breaking News, Weather, ClosingsFeatured image via wikimedia commons