An analysis by the Washington Post has discovered that in the first four months of 2016, there have been 23 people in America that have been shot by toddlers. Our gun obsessed nation has gotten to the point where deadly weapons in the hands of children too young for kindergarten actually has a body count.Last year, a Washington Post analysis found that toddlers were finding guns and shooting people at a rate of about one a week. This year, that pace has accelerated. There have been at least 23 toddler-involved shootings since Jan. 1, compared with 18 over the same period last year.In the vast majority of cases, the children accidentally shoot themselves. That s happened 18 times this year, and in nine of those cases the children died of their wounds.Toddlers have shot other people five times this year.The most recent instance of this problem grabbing national headlines was when a two-year-old Milwaukee child got ahold of a gun carelessly placed on the backseat of a car and shot his mother, 26-year-old Patrice Price, killing her.Despite these horrific incidents, unacceptable in so much of the advanced, modern world but treated in America as if there s nothing to be done, the will to do anything about guns at the federal level is almost nonexistent.Intimidated by the NRA flexing its muscles to oppose pro-gun safety political candidates, Republicans and a few Democrats in Congress have refused to bring up legislation about guns. If any action has occurred, it has been in the states, and largely in states with a large Democratic majority in the northeast   which leaves citizens in the rest of the country unprotected thanks to some strategically placed campaign contributions.Recently the NRA s media arm, NRA News, went after Hillary Clinton because she has argued in favor of legislation that the gun lobby opposes. More of that sort of behavior is to be expected in the general election, but they did the same against President Obama in 2008 and 2012, obviously unsuccessfully. Despite their bravado and paid political attackers, their bark at the polls is far louder than their bite. If politicians ignored the noise, gun legislation could actually pass despite the NRA s insistence.Featured image via YouTube