4-year old Georgia girl finds unsecured, loaded gun in minivan and shoots self with it

A 4-year old girl in Clayton County, Georgia, is in the hospital with life-threatening injuries.  She or one of her siblings found a loaded, unsecured gun in her parents' minivan and discharged it, hitting the 4-year old.  The girl was taken to surgery.

Three of the girl's young siblings were also in the car at the time, along with their mother, but they escaped injury.

From an article:

A mother and her four young children were traveling in a minivan on Jonesboro Road. The woman tells police she heard a loud “pop” and turned around.

"Her four-year old daughter was slumped over in her car seat with a gunshot wound,” said Windley.

The little girl was airlifted to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston with life-threatening injuries.

Windley says investigators are now trying to figure out where the gun was in the car and who pulled the trigger. Above all, he said, this sad event is further proof that kids and guns can be a tragic combination.

According to another article:

Windley identified the mother as Vera Harmon of Jonesboro. He said Harmon, 34, had three of her other children, two boys ages three and 12 along with a 7-year-old girl, in the minivan at the time of the shooting.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.