A 3-year-old child was hospitalized early Sunday after accidentally shooting himself in the hand with a gun inside a St. Ann home, and police have charged the man who owned the weapon with child endangerment. St. Ann officers responded to the 10300 block of St. Dolores Drive at about 12:10 a.m. Sunday and found the child suffering from the gunshot wound before he was taken to a hospital for treatment.
According to KSDK, police say the child had access to a gun inside the home and accidentally fired it, resulting in the hand injury. Investigators identified Silas Brown as the owner of the firearm involved, and he was taken into custody following the shooting. Brown was charged with endangering the welfare of a child by creating a substantial risk to the child's life or health, and he is being held on a $75,000 cash-only bond.
What the Charge Could Mean for Brown
Under Missouri Revised Statutes Section 568.045, endangering the welfare of a child in the first degree is generally charged as a Class D felony, but the offense escalates to a Class C felony when the child suffers physical injury as a result — the situation investigators describe in this case. It remains unclear whether the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney's Office will pursue the case at that elevated felony level, and the exact relationship between Brown and the child has not been disclosed.
In the wake of the shooting, St. Ann police reminded firearm owners to safely secure their guns, especially in homes with children, and said weapons should be kept in a locked safe or secured with an appropriate locking device. The department, which is CALEA-accredited and operates with 38 sworn officers and 13 civilian personnel according to the City of Saint Ann, issued the advisory as part of its investigation into how the toddler gained access to the weapon.
A Statewide Pattern of Unsecured Guns and Kids
The warning reflects a gap in state law. Missouri has no comprehensive mandatory safe-storage or child-access-prevention statute requiring gun owners to lock firearms or store them separately from ammunition, according to Everytown Research & Policy. That statutory gap has coincided with Missouri ranking fourth nationally in rates of unintentional shootings by children between 2015 and 2023, with 129 separate accidental child shooting incidents recorded statewide over that span, per the same organization's research.
Nationally, roughly 360 children under 18 unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else each year, and about 85% of those incidents involving young children happen inside their own homes, Everytown's research shows. Public health research the group cites found that households locking both firearms and ammunition separately see an 85% lower risk of unintentional firearm injuries to children compared with households that lock neither. Locally, a study led by University of Missouri School of Medicine researchers at St. Louis Children's Hospital found the monthly rate of pediatric firearm injuries rose 51.5% during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the five preceding years, while a separate 10-year review by Washington University in St. Louis found accidental shootings affecting children spread across 94 St. Louis-area ZIP codes, cutting across urban, suburban, and rural communities alike.
Free Locks Available Through County Library
Families looking to secure firearms at home don't have to buy locking devices themselves. The St. Louis County Library offers free firearm cable locks and safety educational materials at all 20 of its branches, through partnerships with the Be SMART campaign and Women's Voices Raised for Social Justice's Lock It for Love program. It's one of several local efforts aimed at closing the gap left by Missouri's storage laws.
The child's current condition following treatment has not been publicly updated. St. Ann police have not released additional details on the investigation, and it is not yet known whether prosecutors will file the case as a Class C or Class D felony.
