Arizona house so full of guns, it's a miracle the 3-year-old only now shot himself

Investigators found nearly two dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition lying around the Arizona home of a 3-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself earlier this year.

The boy apparently pulled a small chair up to a counter where his mother was working on a laptop computer March 3 and found a .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol.

The weapon was in an ankle holster that exposed the gun’s trigger, which police said “could easily be pulled by almost anyone.”

The boy did pull the trigger and shot himself in the abdomen. He underwent emergency surgery and survived the shooting.

The boy's parents, Don and Sharina Marion, have not been arrested or charged.

Detectives executed a search warrant the family’s Pima County home and reported 20 unsecured guns scattered throughout the house, including shotguns, rifles, and a Colt .45 handgun in a holster affixed to the headboard in the master bedroom.

The family does own a gun safe, where several weapons were found, but one of the couple’s four children said he knew the safe was unlocked, and another said his father – who is the volunteer fire chief for the Elephant Head Fire Department -- didn’t remember the combination to it.

Most of the weapons found in the house were not loaded, police said, but several had rounds in the chamber and others had rounds in magazines.

Sharina Marion told police she didn’t know there were unsecured guns in the home and said she believed the gun safe was locked.

Family members said the pistol used in the shooting was usually kept on top of a kitchen cupboard, but they said it must have fallen to a counter below.

The Marions told police they taught their children – ages 3,7, 9, and 10 – firearms safety and that they could handle the weapons only with parental approval.

The 3-year-old had fired weapons under supervision the day before he shot himself at a “church shoot” with other members of their congregation.

The toddler told police April 17 that his parents had sold the guns.

The children remain with their parents at home.

Watch this video report posted online by KGUN-TV: