Chicago police and community groups hand out gun locks after toddler accidentally killed himself

A recent uptick in the number of Chicago children unintentionally shooting themselves with unsecured guns this summer is causing outrage in communities across the city.

One police district is trying to solve the problem one gun lock at a time.

Police and community members handed out gun locks Friday at 87th and Prairie, steps from the home where a 2-year-old boy shot and killed himself on Monday after getting his hands on an unsecured gun.

It didn't matter if they said they owned a gun or not, Gresham (6th) District Police Commander Michael Tate and an army of community stakeholders who he canvassed with said they want Chatham residents to have a gun lock.

They didn't stop with just homeowners. They also talked to people on the street and in their cars in the middle of the road.

"I'm sure you've got a safe or something in there. Make them unload them, put the locks on, put them in the safe," told two men he spoke to.

For Tate, the last death hit too close to home.

"As a father, and I watched his father, what he's going through, and I couldn't even imagine, I couldn't imagine what he's going through," Tate said.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's office identified the 2-year-old who unintentionally shot and killed himself with an unsecured gun in this Chatham home on Monday as Kh'aden Johnson.

Police said so far, no one has been charged in that case.

His death came less than two weeks after a 5-year-old boy accessed an unsecured gun and fatally shot himself in the head in the Kenwood neighborhood.

In that case, the boy's mother was charged with one felony count of child endangerment and death.

On July 21, two people were charged with misdemeanors after a 2-year-old boy was shot with an unsecured gun inside a home in the Humboldt Park neighborhood. Fortunately, that toddler survived.

"Secure these guns, secure them in the way that they should be, and let's keep them out the wrong hands … keep them out the hands of people who shouldn't be utilizing them," Tate said.

Friday's effort came just weeks after Gov. JB Pritzker signed a law that heightens Illinois gun storage law requirements.

Gun owners are required to safely store their guns if a child under 14 lives in or visits the home. Beginning in January, it will apply to all minors.

"This is us being out here on the prevention side, and not the other side of it," said Dr. Tracey Kim Snow, founder of Beyond Healing Counseling.

Meantime, community stakeholders are trying to change the way people think about these tragic incidents.

"Accidents are things that can't be prevented. It happened. It was an accident. These guns can be secured. They should be secured. And so that's why we really are stressing the word unintentional or negligence, because we don't see it as an accident when it can be prevented," said Lisette Guillen, executive producer for Case Files: Chicago.

Police said they've been in close contact with the family of the 2-year-old who was killed on Monday, providing counseling and other wraparound services for those impacted.