title:  Three-Year-Old Dies After Finding Loaded Gun, Shooting Herself (VIDEO)
text: A three-year-old South Carolina girl died on Saturday, after a days-long battle for her life. According to WACH, the toddler got her hands on a loaded gun, accidentally shooting herself on Monday. On Saturday, the Lexington County Sheriff s Department posted a public tweet, informing the public that the little girl had lost her battle for life.Police say they are conducting an investigation into how the toddler got the gun in the first place. The identity of the family has not yet been made public. At this time no one has been charged in connection with the toddler s death.The toddler s death follows the July 20th shooting death of seven-year-old Thomas William Paisie III. The first-grader accidentally shot himself while handling a loaded gun at the home of his grandfather in Jones County, Georgia. According to The Telegraph, two adults were in the home when the seven-year-old came across the unsecured gun. Neither of the adults was in the room with the child. They heard the sound of a shot and then came in and found the child injured and immediately called 911,  Jones County Sheriff s Officer Kenny Gleaton said.  Unfortunately, the victim had passed away at the scene.  Gleaton went on to say: I would urge people, if they are going to choose to have firearms in their homes, I just encourage them to be responsible and store them safely and separately from ammunition. Keep them under lock and key at all times when not in use. While we hear a lot about  responsible gun owners,  from the NRA, it seems nearly every day in the U.S. we read about a child killed in an accidental shooting. These needless deaths happen because a parent or relative failed to keep a deadly weapon out of the hands of someone too young to understand what can happen.According to the Gun Violence Archive, an organization which tracks shootings across the United States, more than 2,000 children have been injured or killed by guns so far in 2016. Many of these deaths were  accidental shootings,  like those that killed two children this week. No matter what the NRA says, there s nothing responsible about a nation that allows its children to die needlessly, year after year, because some  adult  believes owning a gun is their God-given right. We can do better than this.Here s more on this story from WACH. Featured image via wikipedia cc 2.0