A two-year-old boy is dead after he got hold of an unsecured gun inside his Northside Jacksonville home and shot himself, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Deputies responded to the home around 10 p.m. last Monday after receiving a call that the boy had been shot, and he was rushed to a hospital, where he later died.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office homicide unit detectives are investigating how the boy accessed the weapon, according to West Orlando News. As reported by CBS News, the shooting occurred on July 27, and officers described the incident as a completely preventable tragedy.
The case echoes an eerily similar one from April 2025, when a two-year-old boy in Jacksonville died after finding an unsecured gun and accidentally shooting himself at a home on Calvary Drive, according to the same outlet's earlier reporting. Officers had responded to that home on the 5800 block of Calvary Drive around 7 p.m. and interviewed both parents. Hoodline also covered a July case in which an unsecured gun found on a kitchen table led to a child being shot, with the gun owner facing improper storage and child neglect charges in that gun-on-kitchen-table shooting.
What Florida's Safe Storage Law Actually Requires
Florida law prohibits gun owners from knowingly leaving a loaded firearm accessible to a child under 16 when the child could access it without permission, per the seed reporting on the case. Under Florida Statute § 790.174, storing a loaded firearm where a minor under 16 can gain unsupervised access constitutes a second-degree misdemeanor if the minor possesses or exhibits the weapon, a violation carrying statutory penalties of up to 60 days in jail and up to a $500 fine under Florida Statutes §§ 775.082 and 775.083, according to the Galigani Law Firm.
That misdemeanor charge is not necessarily the end of the story. If a minor accesses an unsecured firearm and uses it to inflict severe bodily harm or death, Florida prosecutors can elevate charges beyond a second-degree misdemeanor to third-degree felony charges or child neglect charges depending on the circumstances, the same firm notes. A gun owner may face criminal charges if a child accesses an unsecured firearm and causes injury or death, per the seed report on this case.
Notably, Florida Statute § 784.05 bars law enforcement from arresting a parent or guardian sooner than seven days after an accidental child shooting, instead requiring officers to submit their investigative findings to the state attorney's office for review. The Volusia Sheriff's Office has cited that statute to explain why arrests do not happen immediately in these cases, giving prosecutors time to evaluate evidence before any charges are filed against guardians. That same office investigated a February 2023 case in Volusia County in which a three-year-old boy fatally shot himself after retrieving a handgun from his father's nightstand, after the electronic lock on the family's gun safe had stopped working; that case was forwarded to the State Attorney's Office to evaluate potential safe-storage charges.
A Pattern That Keeps Repeating Across Florida
The Jacksonville case is far from isolated. Hoodline previously reported on a March 2026 incident in Alachua County in which an 8-year-old was shot in the neck after children found an unlocked gun, and an August 2025 Jacksonville case in which a child survived a self-inflicted gunshot wound from an unsecured firearm. Hospital discharge data analyzed this month by WFTV, KFF Health News, and The Trace found that more than 4,000 Florida children under age 18 were treated at hospitals for gunshot wounds between 2018 and 2024, and multi-state medical research published in Pediatrics found that unintentional shootings account for the majority of pediatric gun injury hospitalizations, according to WFTV.
The problem stretches well beyond Florida's borders. A May 2026 study published in JAMA Network Open estimated that nearly 7 million American children live in households with at least one loaded and unsecured firearm, a nearly 50% increase from previous estimates, according to Everytown for Gun Safety. Previous national firearm surveys in 2015 and 2021 had estimated that figure at 4.6 million children. Everytown's tracking index has recorded more than 3,800 unintentional shootings by children under 18 across the country between 2015 and 2025, resulting in nearly 1,500 deaths and 2,500 injuries — roughly one incident a day in which a child gains access to an unsecured loaded firearm and fires it.
Where Jacksonville Families Can Get Free Gun Locks
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office officials say responsible gun ownership starts with safe firearm storage, and they are urging gun owners not to leave a firearm unsecured in a home or vehicle. Gun owners can use a gun safe, lockbox, or trigger lock to keep weapons out of reach, and law enforcement is encouraging parents and guardians to teach children that real guns are not toys.
The department is offering free gun locks at two of its district substations while it works to restock supplies at the other four. Free locks are currently available at the District 1 substation at 5258 Norwood Avenue and the District 2 substation at 9119 Merrill Road, both in Jacksonville. Officials are also asking parents and guardians to ask family members, babysitters, and friends' parents how firearms are stored in their homes, and they want children who find a gun to stop, avoid touching it, leave the area, and tell an adult right away.
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