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Article

29 Apr 2014

Author:
Sean O'Hagan, Guardian (UK)

Armed to the milk teeth: America's gun-toting kids

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[L]ast year, a two-year-old girl was shot dead by her five-year-old brother with a small rifle made specifically for children. The accidental shooting happened in Cumberland County, Kentucky, when the boy was playing with a gun purchased from...Keystone Sporting Arms, which, in 2008, produced around 80,000 rifles for children. The guns, which sell under the model names Cricket and Chipmunk, were originally advertised on a "Kid's Corner" on the company's website (it has since been removed), which showed children firing them at rifle ranges and on hunting trips. The guns are produced in bright blue, pink and rainbow colours and marketed like toys, under the tag line "My First Rifle"...[P]hotographer An-Sofie Kesteleyn...series, My Little Rifle, consists of only 15 portraits, but they provide a powerful and disturbing glimpse of a much bigger gun culture..."They do feel like toys," she says, "and the bullets are really small – but they can kill another child."