Report: Toddlers Have Already Shot 23 People This Year

According to The Washington Post, American children three years old or younger have shot at least 23 people in 2016, five more than they did over the same period in 2015.

In 18 of the 23 cases reporter Christopher Ingraham reviewed, the children themselves were the victims. In half of those cases, the children died. From the Post:

Georgia is home to the highest number of toddler shootings, with at least eight incidents since January 2015. Texas and Missouri are tied for second place with seven shootings each, while Florida and Michigan are tied for fourth, with six shootings apiece.

Ingraham found that toddler-involved shootings disproportionately occurred in the states for reasons that could not be attributed to population or gun laws alone.

“Sussing out cause and effect in these cases, in other words, is still largely a guessing game,” writes Ingraham. “And it’s a game made much more difficult by Congress’s efforts to restrict the type of gun research that agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are allowed to conduct.”