A two-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in west Phoenix after finding a loaded firearm his father had left on a sofa whilst watching online videos, prompting renewed calls for stricter gun safety measures in Arizona households.
Oscar Guerra, 27, was arrested and charged with one felony count of child abuse after his son sustained a gunshot wound to the upper left arm and a broken humerus bone at approximately 10:40 p.m. on 9 July. The incident occurred at a residence near 84th Avenue and Campbell Avenue in the Maryvale neighbourhood of west Phoenix.
According to court documents, Guerra told investigators he had placed the firearm on the armrest of the sofa with the intention of cleaning it but became distracted watching online videos on his computer. He said he saw his son enter the living room but believed the child had returned to his bedroom to sleep.
“Approximately 30 seconds later, whilst still focused on his computer, Guerra heard a gunshot and turned to find his son bleeding,” court documents revealed. The child’s mother, who was in the kitchen at the time, reported hearing the gunfire.
Officers arriving at the scene found Guerra holding his injured son. The toddler was transported to a nearby hospital with injuries described as non-life-threatening by Phoenix Police Department Sergeant Rob Scherer.
The mother disclosed to police that this was not the first incident involving an unsecured firearm in the household. She reported a previous occurrence where Guerra had left a gun unsecured and said the couple had discussed the importance of proper firearm storage.
Police recovered the weapon underneath the sofa. In his statement to investigators, Guerra acknowledged it was his responsibility to keep the firearm out of his child’s reach and admitted to making “a serious error,” according to court documents.
Guerra was released from jail without bail to visit his son in hospital. If convicted of the felony child abuse charge, he faces up to nearly nine years in prison. The Arizona Department of Child Safety has been notified and is conducting a separate investigation into the incident.
The shooting highlights a disturbing trend in firearm-related incidents involving children. In the U.S., gun death rates in this age group have increased by 106 percent since 2013 and have been the leading cause of death among this group since 2020, according to a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
Nationally, 4.6 million minors in the US live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm, whilst research shows that over one-third of children belonging to those households reported being able to access the firearm in less than five minutes.
Gun safety expert Barret Kendrick, speaking to AZFamily about the incident, emphasised the critical nature of secure storage. “They’re not going to sit there and weigh the risk or benefit of handling a firearm,” Kendrick said. “Generally speaking, as a responsible gun owner, we need to make sure that we’re preventing access to anyone who has not been trained or could not be trusted with that firearm.”
Arizona currently lacks comprehensive child access prevention laws that would require firearms to be stored securely. Arizona has no law that requires unattended firearms to be stored in a certain way. Arizona also does not require a locking device to accompany the sale of a firearm, and no state statutes require firearm owners to affirmatively lock their weapons, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
This stands in contrast to 27 states and Washington, D.C. have CAP or safe storage laws in effect as of January 2025. Research has shown these laws to be effective, with CAP laws lowered suicide rates by up to 14% among youth.
Firearms are the deadliest method of suicide, with a fatality rate close to 90%,” says Paul Nestadt, MD, associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “States that have high rates of gun ownership, increases in rates of gun ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic, and/or a strong gun culture should consider enacting or updating their child access prevention firearm storage policies.”
The incident adds to concerning statistics about firearm deaths among American youth. In 2023, firearms were the leading cause of death for children and teens (ages 1 to 19) in the United States, with approximately 46,728 total gun deaths nationally that year.
Experts emphasise that secure storage measures can prevent tragedies. Estimates suggest that even modest increases in the number of American homes safely storing firearms could prevent almost a third of youth gun deaths due to suicide and unintentional firearm injury.
The investigation into the Phoenix shooting remains ongoing, with both local police and child safety officials examining the circumstances that led to the toddler gaining access to the loaded weapon.
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