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Tennessee Boy, 7, Killed: Loaded Weapon Left In Vehicle Leads To Accidental Shooting By Child’s Brother

By Louis Babcock
Published on: 22:11 PST, Jan 26, 2016

A tragedy in Crossville, Tennessee happened on Tuesday when it was discovered that a seven-year-old boy was killed while sitting in the vehicle with his three other siblings. The Tennessee boy was accidentally shot by his eight-year-old brother due to the fact that the mother of the children had left a loaded weapon in the vehicle.

The four children were waiting inside of a vehicle outside of a Verizon store in Crossville, Tennessee. The mother and step-father of the children went inside together in order to pay their phone bill. The mother of the boy that was killed had left her purse inside the vehicle. Inside the purse, the eight-year-old boy found a loaded gun. The boy attempted to unload the weapon by taken the magazine out of the gun. It was during the removal of the magazine when the gun discharged, shooting his seven-year-old brother, who was hit in the head. The seven-year-old Tennessee boy succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Knoxville.

The parents of the four children have been identified as Samantha Farley, 29, and Jacob Farley, 29 who are from the town of Sparta, Tennessee. The name of the boy that was killed, or the three other children, have not been released to the media. According to the report that was taken by the Crossville Police Department, it is not known if Samantha had a legal permit for the gun that was used in the accidental shooting. The two other children are girls who are nine-years-old and four-months-old.

An investigation into the Tennessee tragedy was launched by the Department of Children’s Services and the Cumberland County District Attorney General’s office. It has been stated that the Farleys do not have any record of past abuses with the Department of Children’s Services.

Sadly, 555 children have been the victims of gun violence since the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre in 2012. All of those 555 children were younger than 12 years old. It is believed that the actual number of children who have been the victims of guns since Sandy Hook. The reason for this belief is that the number of gun deaths via suicide are not counted.

Shannon Watts started a Facebook group after Sandy Hook that turned into a group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense. Watts states that the events that transpired at Sandy Hook Elementary will be viewed in the future as a turning point when it comes to dealing the child deaths from guns.

“I wouldn’t wake up and spend 12 hours a day working on this if I didn’t think we were winning. I’m just so saddened by the lives we’re going to lose in the meantime.”

NBC News has been studying the data on children gun deaths since the Sandy Hook shooting, and they discovered that there has not been much of a change in the data.

Jeffrey Swanson is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University. Swanson is also a researcher on firearms laws, mental illness and prevention of gun violence. He commented on the gun violence that is plaguing the children of America.

“Mass shootings get all the attention, but they are a small part of the overall problem. On the same day as the Sandy Hook shooting, about 90 other people died as the result of a shooting.”

Gun violence and regulation are two of the hottest topics of the 2016 presidential election. Views on the 2nd amendment have polarized the nation on the gun debate. When the new President is elected we will see what happens with the gun rights in the United States.

[Image Via George Pickow/Getty Images]

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