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April 1 — Marcus Thomas Jr., age 3 1/2 weeks, is shot and killed when a gunman sprays his parents' car with bullets outside a North Las Vegas apartment building.
April 25 — A 4-month-old is struck in the hand by a bullet fired through the wall of an apartment near the Las Vegas Strip.
June 2 — A 2-year-old is injured at an apartment complex near UNLV after an argument between two men leads to gunfire.
In Las Vegas and across the U.S., children are paying in blood for the nation's refusal to control firearms and reduce gun violence.
A study last month in the journal Pediatrics showed that guns were the third-leading cause of death among children, ahead of heart disease, asthma and pneumonia and behind only motor-vehicle accidents and injury-related deaths. Nearly 1,300 people under 18 are killed by guns each year, and 5,790 are treated for gunshots, the study found, meaning that guns are responsible for more than 1 in 10 deaths of children and adolescents in the U.S.
The slaughter of children is a national disgrace, one for which the National Rifle Association and its horde of gun-rights extremists deserve the bulk of the blame.
By treating any attempt to deal with gun violence like an existential threat to Americans' freedom, the gun lobby has helped create a glut of firearms while attacking measures designed to help keep guns out of the wrong hands.
As a result, guns are everywhere — estimates say there are more guns than Americans in this country — and are shamefully easy to obtain.
Residents must lead the way on action against gun violence