One child shoots his friend to death, another injures an adult

* Source and photo: Anadolu Agency (AA) - Konya

Click to read the article in Turkish

In two incidents that occured on the same day (February 23), one child injured an adult with a rifle by accident in Konya province and another child accidentally shot his friend to death in Samsun province.

He found a rifle in the apartment

As reported by the state-run Anadolu Agency (AA), 16-year-old A.Ö. found a rifle at the entrance to the apartment where he lives in Konya.

While the child was trying to show the rifle to Ali Aktaş, the owner of the shop on the ground floor of the same apartment, he injured Aktaş in his leg as the rifle accidentally went off in the meantime.

Police teams and paramedics came to the scene of the incident and Aktaş was taken to the Meram Faculty of Medicine Hospital. While he is reportedly in good health, he has not pressed charges against the child.

Taken to the police station after the incident, A.Ö. has been released after giving his statement. The security officers are examining the pump rifle found by A.Ö. at the entrance to the apartment.

Children who went hunting

The other incident happened in Samsun. The child who was allegedly killed by mistake by his friend while hunting has lost his life.

According to the allegations, two friends R.A. (15) and M.Z. (15) went hunting and the rifle of R.A. went off by mistake. Hit by the birdshots, M.Z. lost his life at the scene of the incident.

Following the crime scene investigation, the deceased body of the child has been taken to the mortuary of Vezirköprü State Hospital.

R.A. has been detained by the gendarmerie.

'Guns either kill children or make them murderers'

Making efforts for wide-scale personal disarmament in Turkey, Umut (Hope) Foundation released a statement on the occasion of September 28 Individual Disarmament Day in 2020 and announced that a total of 2,455 incidents of violence occurred in Turkey in the first 9 months of 2020. According to the statement, 2,061 of these incidents were caused by firearms.

The Umut (Hope) Foundation has long been warning that the firearms left within the reach of children lead to irrecoverable sorrows, causing them to kill themselves or their siblings and friends by accident.

Among the solutions offered by the foundation is to ensure that "Training Programs" are introduced so that both students and parents can have a better understanding of what it means to possess a gun, what responsibilities they have in such a case and what consequences it might lead to. (AÖ/SD)