A nine-year-old boy suspected of killing a family member with a gun has been arrested in Utah, in the western United States, police announced Tuesday.

The tragedy unfolded on Friday night in the city of Tooele, a police officer told AFP, without specifying whether the authorities believe it was an accident or a deliberate act.

Law enforcement found a “32-year-old man” unconscious at a home they were called to.

The victim suffered a “bullet wound to the head” and was taken to hospital in an “extremely critical condition”, before he “later succumbed”.

According to the first data of the investigation, the child, who was arrested “later in the evening” and the victim belong to the same family.

“We intend to prosecute for homicide,” police added, without specifying whether the child was a boy or a girl, or going into further details.

The US is paying an extremely heavy price for the widespread proliferation of weapons on its soil and the ease with which Americans can gain access to them.

The country has more guns (some 400 million) than residents, one in three American adults owns at least one gun, and nearly one in two lives in a household with more than one gun.

Further to this proliferation is the extremely high rate of deaths due to violent incidents involving the use of weapons in the country, which bears no comparison with those in other economically developed nations.

About 49,000 people were killed by bullets in 2021, compared to 45,000 in 2020, which was already a tragic record year. In other words, over 130 deaths were recorded every day. More than half were suicides.

The US Congress has been unable to pass any ambitious gun legislation for decades, as many of its members are under the influence of the powerful NRA gun lobby, the largest of its kind.