Kids are dying from accessing loaded guns. A grieving Indiana mom is fighting to stop it.
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 is now a reminder of his absence. His toys now sit untouched. A little basketball hoop hangs from the closet door. Toy cars and action figures line the shelves. A little league photo sits above the entryway.
"A lifetime ago," Cole said. "Because I miss him, and I don't get to make any 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's also one of hundreds of children who were killed by guns in Indiana over the last 20 years, a CBS News Chicago investigation found. This all happened in a state that has failed to pass gun storage legislation, which advocates said could prevent deaths like his.
"I talk about it because I want to save other parents the heartache," Cole said. "I want to save other kids like I wasn't able to save him."
Not an "accident"
It was the morning of Aug. 5, 2017. Kandice and her husband, Ronald, had to work. Her boss volunteered to watch Eric and Kandice's 7-year-old daughter.
"I just never thought to ask, do you have a gun? Is it locked up? And that's one of the main things that I wish I could go back and tell myself," Kandice said.
At one point, the babysitter left the children with his fiancé at his Winfield home, court records said. His fiancé stepped away to go to the bathroom. It was then that Eric found an unsecured, loaded .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 I had to go to sleep with only one."
Initial news reports and officials called Eric's death an accident. But describing shootings like his that way, rather than as preventable, only deepens Kandice's pain. She believes it strips the gun owner of accountability.
"It was 'accident' everywhere," Kandice said. "'It was just an accident. Just a horrible accident.' And we weren't okay accepting that."
The babysitter in her son's case would later admit in court that "he did not properly secure" his handgun, records show.
Gun violence: A bigger picture
Shootings like the ones that killed Eric are part of a larger story 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 that requires safely storing firearms.
In 2023, Indiana had at least 27 unintentional shootings by children under 18 years old, resulting in 9 deaths, according to Everytown. That's nearly twice the totals found in Illinois, where safe gun storage is required by law.
CBS News Chicago Investigators also analyzed CDC data over a 20-year period. From 1999 to 2020, there were 804 children under 18 years old killed by guns in Indiana. This could be a homicide, suicide, or an unintentional shooting like Eric's.
Nearly 24%, or 191 shootings, were in Eric's Northwest Indiana community alone. The rate of kids killed by guns in Northwest Indiana is double the national rate.
Indiana is one of 24 states without laws requiring safe firearm storage, meaning guns locked and unloaded. Some lawmakers, like Indiana State Rep. Maureen Bauer (D-House District 6), have attempted to pass laws aimed at holding gun owners accountable if they don't safely secure their gun, and a child gets a hold of it. So far, these efforts have not been successful.
Bauer said it was a challenge even to pass a law last year that requires all Indiana public schools to send home information about how to safely store a firearm in homes where children are present.
"Every policymaker should have to explain why that is the fact and why they aren't willing to change it," Bauer said. "It's happening in every community. It's not just blue districts."
The fight for legislation
Kandice also struggled to get traction when sharing her story with some lawmakers.
"It's an uphill battle," she said. "And you can't find a lot of Republicans to want to work across the lines."
For years, gun lobby groups like the NRA have opposed proposed bills that strengthen storage accountability. While the NRA's website says it "supports storing firearms in a responsible manner," the organization also publicly encourages members to oppose laws and proposed gun storage bills. The group argues 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 built up the courage to attend the U.S. Senate debate in Indiana and ask the candidates if they would be willing to commit to legislation to hold negligent gun owners criminally liable. One of the candidates was then-Republican senator, now Indiana Governor-elect Mike Braun.
"My 4-year-old son Eric was killed at a babysitter's house when they left a fully loaded handgun unsecured and easily accessible to children," Kandice said during the debate. "Would you support and would you sponsor a bill passing safe storage laws, also known as child access prevention laws?"
Braun would not commit to legislation.
"When it comes to things like storage and so forth, I think the places where we've tried to use gun laws generally impact the folks who are law-abiding," Braun said, in part. He also emphasized his endorsement from the NRA.
"I was the individual here who's getting the NRA endorsement and proud of it because I think they want to make sure your Second Amendment rights are never infringed," He said.
When reflecting on her public address to Indiana Senate candidates years later, Kandice criticized Braun's response. She rejected the idea that law abiding gun owners would be impacted by a safe storage law.
"I'm not talking about the Second Amendment," Kandice said. "I'm talking about kids accessing guns."
"I think it's very easy to get those two issues conflated," Bauer agreed. "We're talking about preventing the death of children, which we all agree shouldn't be happening."
Accountability 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 time in a work release program. He faced no gun-related charges.
Kandice said she didn't feel that was enough.
"We didn't want it to just be 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 sufficient," she continued. "At the end of the day, you were the adult who purchased that gun. You were the one who should have been the one to put it away."
CBS News Chicago found the outcome of the criminal case could have been different in a state with stronger gun laws. Everytown ranked California as having the strongest gun legislation in the country, in part because of its storage law.
If Eric's death happened in California, his babysitter could have been charged with an additional "criminal storage of a firearm" charge and faced up to three years in prison. If the gun owner had been convicted of a first-degree felony on that charge, he would be banned from owning a gun for life.
To continue her efforts in honor of her son, Kandice joined the Be SMART awareness campaign to 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 gun locks for free.
In addition to educating families to secure their firearms - and encouraging them to ask about unsecured guns in other homes - Kandice is working to combat the characterization that these shootings are accidents, rather than preventable. 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 people's lives for free. It's easy, just lock it up," she said. "When you have a gun accessible, it makes it that much 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 few years after Eric's death. His photos, toys and the memories were too much to bear. But that's changed.
"It made me cry then," she said. "It makes me smile now."
"He's not just a tragedy. He was a fun and loving boy before that," she continued. "I can keep him forever by helping spread awareness and helping other parents realize the importance of asking."
