WATERTOWN — Gun safety is often overlooked until problems arise. In the United States, accidental shootings involving children occur nearly every other day.

This raises a question: How can we support gun safety around children?

Several weeks ago, a 14-year-old boy accidentally shot himself with a .22 revolver that was not properly secured in his home. Thankfully he is alive but still in bad shape. It’s a miracle that nothing worse happened.

One of the boy’s friends, Nonnewaug freshman Oliver Boroski, said he was “shocked and surprised” when he found out about what happened.

A Connecticut law states that in a house where someone under 18 lives, residents need to have any firearms stored in a safe where children do not have access to it.

Nonnewaug School Resource Officer Chris O’Toole said that despite the recent news, accidental shootings in this area are still rare.

“We do not have a lot of accidental shootings [because] most people properly store their guns,” O’Toole said. “If you have a gun, you need a safe to store it in.”