A 5-year-old boy has accidentally killed his baby brother.

A five-year old boy has accidentally shot and killed his nine-month old brother who had just been put down for a nap.

His brothers and sisters had been settled in front of cartoons while their mother went about the house.

Alexis Wiederholt, aged 26 has told NBC News that she then heard a strange pop and her five-year old son screaming “sorry Mum I shot Corbin”

Alex Wiederholt from Missouri in the US frantically, calls emergency services.

She tells them that her son has shot her baby with a paint ball gun.

Responders within minutes arrive but the scene before them is far worse.

Overnight another tragic shooting in the US has occurred with the baby, just nine-months old, in northwest Missouri shot dead..

The baby had just been laid down in his playpen. The gun, loaded had been left lying around by its owner – his grandfather.

Sheriff Darren White told KCTV that the children’s mother was hysterical when she called 911.

“She said that she needed an ambulance at her home, that her 5-year-old son had shot her 9-month-old son in the head with a paintball gun,” White said.

But it was actually a .22 caliber magnum revolver.

Shocked neighbours told KCTV that there needed to be “more gun safety”.

“You know, just some gun safety could have come into play, and would have maybe, you know prevented the situation, but it’s just really sad, altogether,” neighbor Jessica Hutchison said.

The shooting has been ruled “an accident”.

It comes less than a month after a two-year-old boy shot and killed his 29-year-old mother in a Walmart store in the US state of Idaho after finding the gun in her purse.

Veronica Rutledge was shopping with her son and three other children when the boy, sitting in the front of the shopping cart, found the gun and shot her dead.

The figures as to how many children a week are killed in the US in what is termed “accidental shootings” are blurry as only some are termed homicides.

However Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence told The Washington Post that their figures show nine children are unintentionally shot each day in the U.S

We do hear it time and time again.

Last year after a 9-year old girl killed her instructor at a shooting range The Washington Post wrote “a three-year-old boy is playing with a gun and shoots himself in the face. A four-year-old girl discovers a gun and shoots her four-year-old cousin, killing him. A three-year-old boy shoots himself in the head. A five-year-old accidentally shoots a three-year-old girl. A five-year-old boy accidentally shoots and kills himself. A four-year-old boy accidentally shoots himself. A two-year-old boy shoots and kills his 11-year-old sister. It goes on like this, story after story of unintentional shootings involving children that lead to injuries or deaths.”

And now another one.

As an Australian, where tight gun laws are now a defining feature in what makes us feel safe it seems senseless and never ending.

As the world reads of this latest tragedy sweeping gun reform for the US will hardly even be discussed so ingrained is the sentiment through the country that guns keep people safe.  Despite the overwhelming evidence that people who carry guns are nearly five times more likely to be shot than those who don’t carry guns.

Our thoughts are with the family of Corbin.