A 3-year-old boy died in February after shooting himself with a handgun near DeLand he found in a nightstand. Last year in Pensacola an 8-year-old picked up a gun and killed a 1-year-old and wounded a 2-year-old. A 3-year-old boy in Gainesville shot and killed himself with a gun he found in a couch console. A 12-year-old Lakeland boy died of an accidental gunshot after finding a loaded gun in a car in a friend's garage.

The CDC reported that in 2020 firearm-related injuries surpassed vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents for the first time in 60 years of reporting. The numbers have been slowly rising in recent years but they spiked during the pandemic, when both gun sales rose 64% in 2020 over 2019 and unintentional shooting deaths by children surged by nearly a third, according to Everytown.

DeLand tragedy:Sheriff: 3-year-old boy dies after shooting himself with handgun near DeLand

More than 100 deaths a day:Gun violence reached 'staggering' record in 2020, report says

School shootings are on the rise:More kids are dying from gunfire outside of school, too.

Responsible gun owners know that if you're going to keep firearms in your house, especially with children present, you need to keep them safe. Here's how.

Never point a firearm at anyone, loaded or unloaded. When handling or cleaning weapons, always assume they are loaded. Accidental shootings are just that, accidents caused by people who didn't think anything would happen.

Keep a trigger-locking device on your firearms and keep them locked in a secure location, ideally a gun safe. If there is a reasonable chance a child under 16 can get access to your loaded firearms, you must keep it locked up per Florida law. Keep the keys or local combination concealed from children.

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Firearms and ammunition for them should be locked in separate locations to reduce the chance of accidents.

Never assume a child won't find your weapons (no matter how well hidden), or "knows better" than to play with them, or won't be strong enough to pull a trigger, or that they know the difference between a real weapon and a toy. Even if you don't have a firearm in your home, your child may spend time at a friend's or family member's home that does or a friend may sneak one out to show off.

Make sure everyone in your house knows that guns are not toys and that if they find one they should stop, don't touch it, move away from it, and tell a grown-up.

The National Rifle Association has the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe program to help teach children firearm safety and there also may be firearm safety classes for children in your area. Talking to your child about guns can help remove the mystery about them and reduce curiosity.

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One way to drastically reduce the chances of accidental shootings in your home is to remove all firearms from it. That's a decision you'll have to make based on your relative risks.

Aside from the potential for devastating tragedy, keeping an unsecured, loaded firearm in your home is a second-degree misdemeanor. Florida law requires any firearm in a location where a minor is likely to find it must be kept in a secure locked box or container or secured with a trigger lock.

If someone is shot and injured or killed with a weapon you were responsible for, you also may face charges ranging from culpable negligence to aggravated manslaughter.

Boy, 3, fatally shoots self near DeLand:Florida law says adults could face charges

Aggravated manslaughter:Seven years in prison for death of boy, 12, who accessed dad's AR-15

More:JSO: Jacksonville boy, 6, accidentally shoots himself; teen charged with culpable negligence in his death