WHEATFIELD, Ind. (CBS) – Kandice Cole longs for the life she knew before her 4-year-old son, Eric, found a loaded gun at a babysitter’s house.

In September, she stood in her living room, surrounded by images of him. A room once filled with his laughter now serves as a reminder of his absence. His toys now remain intact. A small basketball hoop hangs on the closet door. Toy cars and action figures line the shelves. A little league picture sits above the entrance.

“A lifetime ago,” Cole said. “Because I miss him and I can’t make new memories. All the ones I have are just on replay.”

Eric is one of dozens of children who found an unsecured gun and unintentionally shot themselves or others in Indiana. He is also one of hundreds of children who have been killed by guns in Indiana over the past 20 years, according to a CBS News Chicago investigation. All of this happened in a state that has failed to pass gun storage legislation, which advocates say could prevent deaths like his.

“I’m talking about it because I want to save other parents the heartache,” Cole said. “I want to save the other children like I couldn’t save him.”

Not an “accident”

It was the morning of August 5, 2017. Kandice and her husband, Ronald, had to work. His boss volunteered to look after Eric and Kandice’s 7-year-old daughter.

“I never thought to ask: Do you have a gun? Is it locked? And that’s one of the main things I wish I could go back and tell myself,” said Kandice.

At one point, the babysitter left the children with her fiancé at her Winfield home, according to court records. Her fiancé walked away to go to the bathroom. That’s when Eric found a loaded, unsecured .40 caliber handgun belonging to the babysitter and shot himself. It was two weeks before his fifth birthday.

“We planned a birthday party and ended up planning a funeral,” Kandice said. “I woke up with two kids and had to go to sleep with one.”

Initial reports and officials called Eric’s death an accident. But describing shootings like hers that way, rather than as preventable, only compounds Kandice’s pain. She believes this deprives a gun owner of any responsibility.

“It was ‘accidents’ everywhere,” Kandice said. “‘It was just an accident. Just a horrible accident.’ And we didn’t agree to accept that.”

The babysitter assigned to her son’s case later admitted in court that “he did not properly secure” his handgun, records show.

Gun violence: an overview

Shootings like the ones that killed Eric are part of a larger history of gun violence in Indiana. The nonpartisan, nonprofit Everytown ranked Indiana as one of the states with the weakest gun safety laws, in part because it does not have a law requiring the safe storage of firearms.

In 2023, Indiana saw at least 27 unintentional shootings by children under the age of 18, resulting in 9 deaths, according to Everytown. That’s nearly twice the total found in Illinois, where secure gun storage is required by law.

CBS News Chicago investigators also analyzed CDC data over a 20-year period. From 1999 to 2020, 804 children under the age of 18 were killed by firearms in Indiana. It could be a homicide, a suicide, or an unintentional shooting like Eric’s.

Nearly 24 percent, or 191 shootings, occurred in the northwest Indiana community of Eric alone. The rate of children killed by firearms in Northwest Indiana is double the national rate.

Indiana is one of 24 states without laws requiring safe storage of firearms, meaning weapons locked and unloaded. Some lawmakers, like Indiana State Rep. Maureen Bauer (D-House District 6), have tried to pass laws aimed at holding gun owners accountable if they don’t secure their weapon safely and a child grabs it. So far, these efforts have not been successful.

Bauer said even passing a law last year requiring all Indiana public schools to send home information on how to safely store a gun in homes where children are present was a challenge.

“Every policymaker should explain why this is the case and why they don’t want to change this,” Bauer said. “This is happening in every community. It’s not just blue neighborhoods.”

The fight for legislation

Kandice has also struggled to gain traction in sharing her story with some lawmakers.

“It’s an uphill battle,” she said. “And there aren’t many Republicans willing to work across the lines.”

For years, gun advocacy groups like the NRA have opposed bills that increase storage liability. Although the NRA’s website states that it “supports responsible gun storage,” the organization also publicly encourages its members to oppose gun storage laws and bills. fire. The group says storage requirements violate their constitutional rights and could prevent gun owners from easily accessing their firearms.

This sentiment was made clear to Kandice in 2018. She found the courage to attend the U.S. Senate debate in Indiana and ask candidates if they would be willing to commit to legislation to hold negligent gun owners criminally liable. One of the candidates was then a Republican senator, now Indiana Governor-elect Mike Braun.

“My 4-year-old son Eric was killed at a babysitter’s house when she left a fully loaded handgun unsecured and easily accessible to children,” Kandice said during the debate. “Would you support and sponsor a bill enacting secure storage laws, also known as child visitation prevention laws?

Braun would not commit to legislating.

“When it comes to things like storage and so on, I think the places where we’ve tried to use gun laws generally has an impact on people being law-abiding,” Braun said , in part. He also noted his support of the NRA.

“I was the person here to get the NRA endorsement and I’m proud of that because I think they want to make sure your Second Amendment rights are never violated,” he said. he declared.

Reflecting on her public speech to Indiana Senate candidates years later, Kandice criticized Braun’s response. She rejected the idea that law-abiding gun owners would be affected by a secure storage law.

“I’m not talking about the Second Amendment,” Kandice said. “I’m talking about children who have access to guns.”

“I think it’s very easy to confuse these two issues,” Bauer acknowledged. “We’re talking about preventing child deaths, which we all agree should not be happening.”

Responsibility and solutions

The gun owner in Eric’s case served less than two years in the Department of Corrections after pleading guilty to reckless homicide and criminal recklessness, followed by a stint in a work release program. outside. He has not faced any firearms-related charges.

Kandice said she didn’t think that was enough.

“We didn’t want it to be just a slap on the wrist and you get probation,” she said. “Because we didn’t get a slap on the wrist.”

“I don’t think two years is enough,” she continued. “At the end of the day, you’re the one who bought that gun. You’re the one who should have put it away.”

CBS News Chicago found that the outcome of the criminal case could have been different in a state with stricter gun laws. Everytown ranked California as having the strictest gun laws in the country, in part because of its stockpiling law.

If Eric’s death had occurred in California, his babysitter could have been charged with an additional charge of “criminal storage of a firearm” and faced up to three years in prison. If the gun owner had been convicted of a first-degree felony for this charge, he or she would be prohibited from possessing a firearm for life.

To continue her efforts in honor of her son Eric, Kandice joined the Be SMART awareness campaign promote responsible gun ownership and reduce child gun deaths. The Centers for Disease Control also recommends storing guns locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition to prevent deaths like Eric’s. Many local police departments offer free gun locks.

In addition to educating families about securing their guns — and encouraging them to ask about unsecured guns in other homes — Kandice works to combat the idea that these shootings are accidents rather than avoidable. If the gun had been in a safe or unloaded in her son Eric’s case, she believes he would be alive – and 12 years old – today.

“You can save lives for free. It’s simple, just lock it,” she said. “When you have a gun, it makes things a lot easier and you don’t get a second chance.”

Kandice and her husband, Ronald, kept the door closed and avoided their living room in the first years after Eric’s death. His photos, toys and memories were too much to bear. But that has changed.

“It made me cry at that moment,” she said. “It makes me smile now.”

“It’s not just a tragedy. He was a fun, loving boy before this,” she continued. “I can keep it forever by helping raise awareness and helping other parents understand the importance of asking.”