GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Accidental shootings have killed two children in the metro Atlanta area in less than a week.
Now, two people are charged with the children’s deaths.
Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson was live near Norcross, where advocates on both sides of the gun issue are heartbroken.
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Both deaths are tragedies, including the death of a 13-year-old last week. Now, two families are planning funerals for children that should still be alive.
A 14-year-old died on Wednesday in Atlanta after police say he and another person were mishandling a weapon.
But advocates disagree on how to prevent the tragedies going forward.
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Diana Gregory of Moms Demand Action Georgia said it’s a frustrating situation.
“It’s frustrating because all of them are extremely preventable,” Gregory said. “If a child can find a Christmas present or any money around your house, they can find the guns in your house.”
For the death of the 14-year-old in Atlanta, on Greensferry Avenue, 23-year-old Jaden Young faces involuntary manslaughter charges.
For the death in the Norcross area where a 13-year-old died, police told Channel 2 Action News that the victim’s younger brother found a firearm in the house and it fired accidentally.
The boys’ adult brother Almauri Jay Drummond now faces murder charges.
Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control nonprofit, has research on similar situations.
According to the data they compiled, Georgia led the rest of the United States in the number of unintentional child shootings.
Advocates have pushed for years to require secure storage when children are in the home, but the bills have repeatedly failed in the Georgia Senate.
“We know that secure storage practices can reduce fatalities and injury involved with children who are able to get their hands on firearms,” Heath Hallett, from Georgia Majority for Gun Safety, said.
However, former state senator and U.S. Congressional candidate Colton Moore helped pass legislation that blocks cities from enforcement municipal gun storage ordinances.
“If my gun is in storage, I don’t have access to self-preservation,” Moore said. “So you’re denying me my God-given right to self preservation if my gun is in storage.”
For now, two mothers are left with empty bedrooms.
“We don’t need to live like this,” Hallett said.
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