Three-year-old US boy dies after accidentally shooting himself in the chest

A three-year-old boy in Georgia died after accidentally shooting himself in the chest. It is still unclear how the boy, Holston Cole, managed to get his hands on a loaded gun and who the firearm belonged to. The tragic incident occurred on 26 April at around 7am local time.

A 911 call alerted the Paulding County police, who responded just after 7am. Attempts to revive the child by performing CPR failed and he was pronounced dead at the nearby Paulding Wellstar hospital. The police ruled the death accidental, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

Holston lived with his parents David and Haley Cole and twin sisters Paisley and Macy. Investigators have not yet revealed the make or model of the gun used, simply specifying that it was a small handgun. No charges have been filed yet.

Speaking on the incident, Sgt Ashley Henson with the Paulding County Sheriff's Office said, "You could see the, just the concern on their face. The anguish, it was just a very difficult situation," according to 11alive.

This is not the first such accidental shooting involving the death of a child. In an eerily similar and tragic incident, an Indiana toddler died on 21 April after finding a loaded gun in his mother's purse and firing it, the KTLA reported. The boy's mother had evidently left her purse in the kitchen at their home, which the toddler managed to get when the mother was otherwise occupied.

Holston's untimely death is the second incident in a year involving a child's death due to accidental shooting. According to the gun-safety advocacy group – Everytown for Gun Safety, between December 2012-2013 around 100 children were killed in unintentional gun shootings.

Gun control laws are a controversial issue in the US. Many states and politicians are vehemently opposed to making changes in gun laws, even as the number of deaths due to gun violence grows at an alarming rate.