For their family’s spring break, Julvonnia McDowell and her husband drove their sons to Savannah to spend time with family. Four days into their trip, she received a terrifying phone call from her oldest son: His little brother had been shot. A cousin had found a loaded gun hidden in a clothes drawer. Assuming it was empty, he unintentionally fired it, sending a bullet into his cousin’s chest. In an instant, their family of four became a family of three.

In our latest podcast episode, Julvonnia empowers parents to not shy away from asking others about the potential presence of unsecured firearms. Listen now: https://www.choa.org/podcasts/firearm-injuries-in-kids.