The Brian Lehrer Show

Newsmakers meet New Yorkers as host Brian Lehrer and his guests take on the issues dominating conversation in New York and around the world. This daily program from WNYC Studios cuts through the usual talk radio punditry and brings a smart, humane approach to the day's events and what matters most in local and national politics, our own communities and our lives. WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including Radiolab, On the Media, Death, Sex & Money, Nancy, and many others.

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Playing with Guns


Accidental shootings by curious preschoolers are happening at a rate of about 2 per week.

Jack Healy, national correspondent for the New York Times, joins us to discuss the frequent tragedies that happen when toddlers get their hands on a legally registered adult's guns, and what we can do about it. He covered a particularly tragic stretch of April where four toddlers found guns owned by their parents and fatally shot themselves. 

Healy said one of the troubling discoveries he made while covering this story was the lack of data on children who shoot family members friends, and in many cases themselves with guns owned by their parents. 

"It's tragic but the numbers are so incomplete because there are no real-time reporting requirements or data sources where you can track these things," he said. "So this group Every Town, which was the source of the numbers we used, goes by media searches and obviously some of these things fall through the cracks. Some of them may never make it into a local newspaper or hit some Google news alert. So presumably there are far more of these things out there and there also may be some of these things that never get reported to the police, if someone is thankfully not injured or hurt."

What are your reactions to these findings on toddler gun-related deaths? Should parents be prosecuted? Tweet/call 212-433-9692.

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) May 6, 2016

😬😡😢😣😤😥😦😧😨😩😰😟😱😲😵😞😒😭😖😔😓😫🙇https://t.co/3ODngEdiM9

— Ainslie Binder (@ainslieann) May 6, 2016

"Common denominator" in toddler gun deaths: A loose gun. (I grew up w/case full of 'em in living room; none ever loaded.) @BrianLehrer

— Regina Schrambling (@gastropoda) May 6, 2016

Parents of children who kill themselves w/ unsecured guns should be charged with murder. How is this a question? @BrianLehrer

— Betsy Bradley (@knickerbockerny) May 6, 2016

why do gun manufacturers and NRA stand in the way of safety measures that would combat these deaths? https://t.co/LvxYExdx72

— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) May 6, 2016


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 May 6, 2016  26m