News over the weekend of the senseless and tragic death of a 3-year-old boy who shot himself in the head with an unsecured and unlocked gun in a Struthers home should sound a clarion call to all firearms owners to double down on stringent and safe storage practices.

The heartbreaking calamity unfolded at a home on Spring Street where, according to Struthers police Capt. D.J. Aldish, “The worst possible situation happened. The child got a hold of a loaded firearm.”

Aldish was not mincing words. After committed attempts to save the child’s life amid multiple first responders’ frenzied races through Boardman and Youngstown, the toddler succumbed that afternoon to his serious self-inflicted injuries.

His heart-wrenching and totally preventable death sadly is not an isolated case. In Ohio, more than 200 unintentional shootings by children have played out over the past 10 years, ranking it third highest in the nation, according to the Everytown Research and Policy group.

Nationwide, 1,200 people were killed and more than 2,000 injured nationwide in unintentional shootings by children in the same time frame, the group reported.

One common denominator links these horrendous tragedies: children’s far-too-easy access to weapons of death.

In the aftermath of the tragedy in Struthers, law enforcement agencies in the Mahoning Valley are reinforcing their appeals to the public to ensure failsafe systems are in place to prevent any child or teen from accidentally grabbing hold of a loaded firearm of any type.

Surprisingly not everyone listens to those potentially life-saving appeals. A 2024 study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded that of those surveyed in Ohio who had both children and a loaded gun in the house, 25% of them openly acknowledged they keep their weapons unlocked. Carrying that percentage to account for all 246,000 licensed firearms owners in the state, 61,500 of them could become bloody tragedies just waiting to happen.

In the public policy arena, Ohio, unlike many other states, has no universal law mandating secure storage of firearms. But several attempts to heighten and promote locking and safe storage are wending their way through the state Legislature with bipartisan and Valley support. All were introduced this spring. They include:

â–Ź House Bill 358, the Safe Firearm Storage Education Act, sponsored by Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, and co-sponsored by Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown. This bill directs state agencies to distribute multilingual firearm safety materials through schools and public spaces.

â–Ź House Bill 120, which would eliminate state sales taxes on safe firearm and storage devices. State Rep. Lauren McNally, D-Youngstown, is a co-sponsor of it.

â–Ź House Bill 235, which would provide tax credits to Ohioans who complete firearm safety training or who purchase secure storage devices. McNally is a co-sponsor of this bill as well.

While any law like these that incentivizes responsible firearms storage practices has merit and deserves swift passage, ultimately the prevention of senseless gun deaths and injuries by and among children comes down to very personal common-sense behavioral practices.

Sadly, try as we may, responsibility can not be legislated. That’s why it’s up to family members and loved ones to passionately and repeatedly impress upon gun owners the need for simple but critically important means to keep guns completely out of the reach of others, particularly young children.

That means storing firearms unloaded and locked, with ammunition stored separately, in a secure location inaccessible to children. Using gun locks, lock boxes or safes are simple ways to do so. It’s also crucial to keep keys and combinations hidden and to educate children about gun safety.

In so doing, we may have a fighting chance of not repeating the numbing tragedy that so senselessly snuffed out the life of that innocent young lad in Struthers and so many others like him statewide and nationwide.

Toward that end, commit to secure childproof gun storage today.