JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville toddler is dead after investigators say he accidentally shot himself with a gun inside his Northside home.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax dug through Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office data and found this is the 10th child-involved shooting investigated in Jacksonville this year, involving 11 child victims. We also spoke with a firearms safety instructor about how tragedies like this can be prevented.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Neighbors said, off camera, that the family had just moved into the neighborhood and that they didn\u2019t know them well.<\/p>\n Rod Mills, owner of Scorched Earth Firearms and a former military police officer, says a 2-year-old should never have access to a gun.<\/p>\n The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office is calling this a \u201c100% preventable tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n Mills showed us several ways gun owners can safely secure firearms, including hard-sided lock boxes and vehicle safes.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax reviewed a list we compiled of every child-involved shooting investigated by the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office this year. It shows 10 incidents involving 11 child victims through July 27 \u2014 the day this toddler was killed.<\/p>\n Mills says he believes parents are responsible for making sure children can never access unsecured firearms.<\/p>\n Florida law prohibits knowingly leaving a loaded firearm where a child younger than 16 can gain access without permission.<\/p>\n Mills says every new firearm sold in the United States comes with a locking device, and the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office also gives away free gun locks.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n The Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office is also reminding parents to teach children: stop, don\u2019t touch, leave the area, and tell an adult if they find a gun.<\/p>\n Detectives are still working to determine exactly how the 2-year-old gained access to the firearm. No arrests have been announced.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Jacksonville toddler is dead after investigators say he accidentally shot himself with a gun…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":966282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,5229,3188,723,124994,7310,13035,8423,425,100350,81169,38102,388215,388216,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,213469],"class_list":["post-966281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-america","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-fox_30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville_sheriffs_office","tag-jso","tag-local","tag-mill","tag-mills","tag-north_side","tag-rod_mills","tag-scorched_earth_firearms_training","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-yona_gvino"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117002007023265264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/966282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}