The only way to stop a bad toddler with a gun is a good toddler a gun...or something

There have been at least 23 toddler-involved shootings since Jan. 1, compared with 18 over the same period last year.

Since April 20, there have been at least seven instances in which a 1- , 2- or 3-year-old shot themselves or somebody else in the United States: 

Last year, a Washington Post analysis found that toddlers were finding guns and shooting people at a rate of about one a week.

On April 20, a 2-year-old boy in Indiana found the gun his mother left in her purse on the kitchen counter and fatally shot himself. 

The next day in Kansas City, Mo., a 1-year-old girl evidently shot and killed herself with her father's gun while he was sleeping. 

On April 22, a 3-year-old in Natchitoches, La., fatally shot himself after getting hold of a gun. 

On April 26, a 3-year-old boy in Dallas, Ga., fatally shot himself in the chest with a gun he found at home. 

On April 27, the Milwaukee toddler fatally shot his mother in the car. 

That same day, a 3-year-old boy in Grout Township, Mich., shot himself in the arm with a gun he found at home. He is expected to survive. 

On April 29, a 3-year-old girl shot herself in the arm after grabbing a gun in a parked car in Augusta, Ga. She is also expected to survive.

These numbers represent only a small fraction of gun violence involving children. For instance, the pro-gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety has found at least 77 instances this year in which a child younger than 18 has accidentally shot someone. And there is a whole different universe of gun violence in which toddlers are shot, intentionally or not, by adults.