Mother of 13-year-old killed in unintentional shooting wants state law changed

13-year-old Eddie Holmes, of Puyallup, Washington, was at a friend's home. There were five boys in the house when one of them pulled out his stepfather's loaded, unlocked shotgun from behind a bedroom headboard.  Another boy took the gun and pumped the shotgun and unintentionally fired the weapon.

Eddie was shot directly in the chest, killing him.

Police arrested the 13-year-old boy who fired the gun but Eddie's mother says the shotgun owner should have made sure the gun couldn't fall into a child's hand.

"Because our state has yet to agree on locking and securing guns, I'm left with the unbearable task of planning the funeral of my 13-year-old-son," she said.

Washington is one of the 22 states that have no laws regulating child access prevention to firearms. Child access prevention laws impose criminal liability on adults who give children unsupervised access to firearms.  Research has found that 1.7 million children live in homes with loaded, unlocked weapons.