In 2023, there were at least 30 unintentional shootings by children in Ohio. Nine of them were fatal. 

This is according to the Everytown for Gun Safety database, which tracks unintentional shootings by children based on news reports across the country. 

Anthony Zalewski, MetroHealth injury prevention and outreach coordinator, has seen the effects of these shootings firsthand. On his first day working at MetroHealth, about two years ago, he saw a seven-year-old boy brought in with a gunshot wound. The boy had been playing with a firearm and shot himself in the face. He died. 

That day, Zalewski went home, hugged and kissed his three kids, and told them he loved them. He pulled out his unloaded firearm and said, “We need to talk about this.” 

Zalewski had them hold the gun, feel the weight of it, see that it was unloaded. He explained the parts of the gun, what a gun does, made sure they understood it’s not a toy. 

“And then I locked it away and said, ‘That’s it. You don’t touch this. We never play with these. If you see this at home or at someone else’s house, you walk away from it.’” 

Ohio in top 10 states for unintentional shootings by children

Everytown data shows 2023 was the deadliest year for unintentional shootings by children since 2015, when the organization started tracking the shootings, with more than 400 nationally.  

In the first nine months of 2024, Everytown has tracked at least 11 such shootings. 

Since 2020, guns have been the leading cause of death for children between one and 19 years old across the United States. Ohio is in the top 10 states for unintentional shootings of children, according to Everytown data. 

Because of these statistics, along with reports of stolen firearms used in shootings, Rebecca Lutzko, the Northeast Ohio U.S. Attorney, is working with a group of local advocates for gun safety to teach people how to store guns safely. 

When a person decides to own a gun, they should make sure it’s stored safely so that family members, especially children, as well as visitors or someone who might want to steal the gun, can’t access it, Lutzko said. 

“It’s not about [whether] you should or should not own a gun,” she said. “It really has nothing to do with an individual’s choice. It has to do with, if you make that choice, you need to behave responsibly.”

Without a national database tracking gun ownership, it’s not easy to know how many people in the United States own a gun. 

A 2017 Small Arms Survey estimated there were about 393 million guns in the United States. According to their findings, that’s about 120 guns per 100 residents. 

Ohio does not have a gun registry, and people don’t need a permit to own a gun in the state. 

Safe gun storage

Gun owners can prevent unintentional shootings by keeping their gun unloaded and properly stored in a locked cabinet, a safe, a gun vault or a storage case. The gun should always be out of the reach of children. 

Ammunition should be locked separately from the gun, according to the Department of Justice gun safety tips.

A cable lock is a steel cord that goes through a gun and locks into a key padlock. The Department of Justice encourages gun owners to use the cable lock in addition to storing a gun in a locked cabinet, safe or vault. The cable lock shouldn’t be considered a replacement for safe storage. 

Data from Everytown shows 74% of guns in the United States are stored loaded, and 76% of guns are stored unlocked and often found on a bed under a pillow, mattress or inside or on top of a nightstand. 

“This is simple,” said Calvin Williams, Richmond Heights Police Chief. “Lock it up, put it away, so our kids and people that shouldn’t have access to them don’t have access.”

Class teaches people to ‘Stop the Bleed’

As an injury prevention and outreach coordinator, Zalewski connects community members to resources. He asks people whether they have enough food at home and whether they can afford their bills. 

He also asks people if they have a firearm at home, educates them on proper storage and offers them a free gun lock. 

Beyond sharing gun safety tips, Zalewski also holds a training called “Stop the Bleed.” The class is similar to learning CPR but teaches people how to stop the bleeding and pack a gunshot wound. 

The Stop the Bleed campaign started in 2012 after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. A local surgeon assembled a group of medical professionals to look at how they can improve people’s chances of survival after severe bleeding. 

If there’s a tourniquet available, and a cut or gunshot wound is on a limb, the tourniquet should go above the wound. A belt may work as an improvised tourniquet, but anything thinner like a cord might cause more damage, Zalewski said. 

Dressing, or an absorbent bandage, can be used to pack a wound as much as possible before covering the wound. Zalewski teaches people to push this bandage into the wound, packing it tightly until it’s filled, then use the remaining bandage to cover the top and apply pressure until first responders get to the scene or the person gets to a hospital.

If a proper bandage isn’t available, Zalewski advises people to use a t-shirt or whatever fabric they can find. In an emergency, he said it’s better to stop the bleeding than to worry about using a dirty rag, because the person will get antibiotics once they get to a hospital. 

Zalewski wants to help prevent both unintentional shootings and shooting deaths. 

“You can do things to prevent hypertension, diabetes, things like that,” he said. “This is a similar situation in what I feel is gun violence. There are things that we can do to prevent these horrible tragedies.”