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A 5-year-old Burkesville, Kentucky boy accidentally killed his 2-year-old sister on Tuesday when he shot her to death with a .22-caliber rifle given to him as  a birthday present, reports The LA Times.

Caroline Starks was playing with her brother in their home, when allegedly their mother stepped outside “for a moment” and left her children with a loaded rifle.

The toddler’s autopsy showed that she was died from a single gunshot.

“Most everybody in town is pretty devastated by this,” Cumberland County Coroner Gary L. White said. “Nobody wants to take anyone’s guns away, but you’ve got to keep them out of harm’s way for the kids. It’s a safety issue.”

Watch WGN news report below:

Caroline’s death was ruled accidental and no charges will be filed against her 5-year-old brother.

According to the Times, the .22 is a Crickett rifle marketed to children ages “4- to 10-years-old” as “My First Rifle” and comes in a rainbow of colors from pink to swirly patterns. Though the website is currently unavailable — not surprising, considering that they sell murder machines to children not old enough to do algebra — ThinkProgress.com grabbed an image before they went into hiding.

According to White, gifting children with rifles is not uncommon and is considered a safe practice:

“The little Crickett rifle is a single-shot rifle and it has a child safety,” White said. “This was just a tragic accident.

“In my fifteen years as coroner, this is the first such case,” he said. “It is very, very rare.”

When children die in the streets of Chicago from illegal guns, it’s called bad parenting. But when 2-year-olds die in their own home with legal weapons given to kindergarteners as gifts, it’s a “tragic accident?” Such is the hypocrisy of society.

Unfortunately, this kind of avoidable accident is not unheard of in this gun-friendly society.

As previously reported by NewsOne, six-year-old Brandon Holt has died from injuries sustained when his 4-year-old neighbor shot him in the head with a 22-caliber rifle Monday evening as they played between their New Jersey homes.

The two boys were playing outside in Holt’s side yard when the 4-year-old, who has not been named, left to retrieve the 22-caliber rifle from inside of his home. He fired one shot into Holt’s head while he sat in a golf cart right beside his garage.

Kentucky Boy, 5, Accidentally Shoots 2-Year-Old Sister To Death With ‘Child’ Rifle [VIDEO]  was originally published on newsone.com