ATLANTA — The CDC released a study Thursday afternoon highlighting the high percentage of unintentional firearm deaths among children and teens spanning from 2003 to 2021.
The data shows that most of those deaths involved an unsecured gun.
Julvonnia McDowell says these deaths can be preventable.
She's been working with the program Be Smart. It's all in honor of her 14-year-old son, Jajuan, who was shot and killed seven years ago when a 13-year-old got access to an unsecured gun.
"He loved to draw and build Lego sets. He was an avid animal lover. His childhood dream was to become a veterinarian... a dream that now we won’t get to see fulfilled," she said.
The CDC study shows that 76% of unintentional firearm deaths among children and teenagers in the United States involved a gun that was stored and unlocked.
Ninety-one percent of those unlocked firearms were loaded.
Sixty-seven percent of those deaths happened when the shooter was playing with the firearm or showing it to others.
“There’s this lump that I get in my throat often when we go to a restaurant. I’m so accustomed to saying a party of four because it was four of us. Now we’re instant family of three and that’s just a staggering pain that I carry with me every single day as a mother," McDowell said.
In Georgia, there were four unintentional firearm deaths among children and teens in 2019. That number rose to 10 in 2020, according to a report by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
"Lock and store (the gun) separately from the ammunition. Unload it and make sure it’s being done every day," she said. "Not in a shoebox or a closet, not under a mattress or in a nightstand because kids are curious by nature and if they can find Christmas presents, they can surely stumble across an unsecured firearm."
Just three months ago, a 7-year-old was killed with an unattended gun that was jammed under the driver’s seat of a vehicle, according to DeKalb County Police.
The children's father is now charged with second-degree murder.
McDowell advises adults to remember the acronym "SMART".
- Secure guns in homes and vehicles at all times
- Model responsible behavior around guns
- Ask others about the presence of guns before allowing a child to visit a home
- Recognize guns' roles in suicides
- Tell others about being "SMART"
"So many people think it would never happen to me, and then it happened to me. We have to do our due diligence as adults," she said.