At least 265 kids involved in unintentional shootings in 2015

At least 265 children under the age of 18 picked up a firearm and accidentally shot themselves or someone else with it in 2015, according to numbers compiled by the US gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.

That works out to about five accidental shootings by children each week this year, The Washington Post said.

Of those, 83 ended in death: The underage shooters killed themselves 41 times and other people 42 times. It's important to note that this tally only includes accidental shootings. It doesn't include homicides by teens and suicides.

The shootings usually seem to happen when a kid finds an unsecured gun at home. About 148 of the shootings happened at the victim's house, 31 more happened at a friend's house, and another 28 happened at the home of a family member.

The shooters tend to be toddlers or young kids firing guns completely on accident or teens playing with guns recklessly, as this chart from Everytown shows.

It's unclear whether these numbers are going up or down, because this is the first time these figures have been tallied.

"This is the first attempt at making an account at this scale and this degree, and we as an organization started doing it this year," said Ted Alcorn, Everytown's research director, in an interview.

Alcorn stresses that this number is an undercount. They spend time verifying each shooting via news reports and follow-ups with law enforcement. There are about 30 more shooting cases that they're still working on verifying for the year, he said.

Source: MENA