We can all agree that gun safety is important now more than ever. There's nothing scarier than hearing about an accident involving a child finding a loaded gun, but what happened in Indiana on Monday takes things to a new level. While a family was shopping at a local Ikea, a 6-year-old boy found a handgun stuck in a couch in the showroom and fired it in the middle of the furniture store.
According to CNN, Sgt. Tom Weger from the Fishers Police Department told reporters that a customer sat on a sofa to test it out. "[He] accidentally dropped the gun into a couch and when he got up, he didn't realize that the gun had fallen off of his person." he said
Later that day, a group of children found the weapon and a 6-year-old boy, who has not been identified, accidentally fired it, according to Time Magazine. Fortunately, Weger confirmed that nobody was injured in the incident.
Indiana has the seventh highest rate of accidental child shootings, said a report published in the Chicago Tribune. The report uses information gathered fromThe Associated Press and the USA TODAY Network, who analyzed information from all of the deaths and injuries involving children 17 and under across the country from January 1st to June 30th of 2014. They found that many of the shootings involve small children, some as young as 2 or 3-years-old.
It's also illegal to carry a handgun without a license in Indiana and CNN reported that it was unclear whether or not the original owner had a permit.
Ikea issued a statement to CNN regarding the incident, saying that the safety of their customers is their top priority and that they are taking this issue "very seriously."
[The] safety and security of customers and co-workers is the top priority for IKEA. We have processes in place to ensure that the store is safe for customers and co-workers. For example, our store team has regular safety walks and audits which happen before, during and after opening hours. In addition, IKEA has a no weapon policy in our locations to prevent exactly these types of situations. As soon as we were made aware of the situation, our co-workers took the action they were trained to do to ensure the safety of customers. We are cooperating with police as they investigate this incident.”
According to their statement, Ikea has also reached out to the child's family to offer its "sincerest apologies" for what happened.
