More Killed by Toddlers Than Terrorists in U.S.
Image by Getty Images
J.J. Goldberg May 5, 2013
Startling fact:
Number of persons killed on American soil so far this year by terrorists: 3.
Number of persons killed on American soil so far this year by toddlers: 5.
Note that three of the toddler killings occurred on the same day, April 9, six days before the Boston Marathon bombing.
The most recent took place last Tuesday, April 30, when a 5-year-old in Cumberland County, Kentucky, killed his 2-year-old sister Caroline with a child-size .22 caliber “My First Rifle” his parents had given him as a gift. These deadly toys are manufactured by Crickett Firearms, which reportedly has taken down its website since the shooting.
Strangely enough, it took me several hours to track down this list. If there’s a national registry of this shocking type of shooting, I can’t find it:
2/11/13: 4-year-old Joshua Johnson shoots, kills self, Shelby County, TN.
4/9/13: 4-year-old shoots, kills 6-year-old friend Brandon Holt, Toms River, NJ.
4/9/13: 3-year-old shoots, kills self, South Carolina (no further details).
4/9/13: Josephine Fanning, 48, shot & killed by her 4-year-old son, Wilson County, TN.
4/30/13: 2-year-old Caroline Sparks killed by her 5-year-old brother with his kid-size “first gun,” Cumberland County, KY.
And these three non-fatal shootings:
3/13/13: 3-year-old shoots self in head, survives, Manchester, NY.
4/7/13: 2-year-old shoots mother Re’kia Kidd, 22, not fatal, Carroll County TN.
4/24/13: 3-year-old shoots 10-month-old sister in car, not fatal, Canyon County ID.
Hat tip to Facebook friend Jonathan Freund for putting me on this trail.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Dive In
-
Opinion Yes, the attack on Gov. Shapiro was antisemitic. Here’s what the left should learn from it
-
Opinion Israel just threw another wrench in the peace process — and possibly doomed the last hostages
-
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
-
Opinion As Israelis in New York, we’re horrified by ICE’s detention of one of our Palestinian partners in peace
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Politics Meet America’s potential first Jewish second family: Josh Shapiro, Lori, and their 4 kids
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Who killed Jesus? It wasn’t the Jews, writes a scholar of Roman law.
-
Fast Forward Is ‘New Absolute Bagel’ real? A sign stirs fretful optimism on the Upper West Side.
-
Opinion Yes, the attack on Gov. Shapiro was antisemitic. Here’s what the left should learn from it
-
News ‘Whose seat is now empty’: Remembering Hersh Goldberg-Polin at his family’s Passover retreat
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.