Manchester police said 3-year-old Taylor Porter picked up a gun that was left on a bathroom counter and accidentally shot himself in the head at his home on Woodcrest Drive around 9 p.m. Saturday.

Porter was airlifted to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where he was listed as being in critical but stable condition Sunday.  Investigators said the gun belonged to Taylor's aunt Kandi Brannan.

"Anytime you have something like that it's tragic,” said Terry Walden, a firearms safety instructor that runs a shooting range in north Manchester.

Walden says while having a gun in the home is every family's right, it's the adults responsibility to make sure they're out of reach.
 
“It needs to be where they can control it and secure it and small children don't have the option to just pick it up,” Walden said.

Police said the gun Porter used was a Kel Tec .380, which does not have an external safety.

“If there's a round chambered in it and you pick it up and you pull the trigger, it's supposed to fire,” Walden said

Walden says in addition to not having an external safety, the Kel Tec .380 also has one of the most sensitive triggers on the market.

"The Kel Tec has a 5 ½ lb. trigger pull from the factory,” Walden said.  “Which is probably the minimum I would want anybody to have for a personal defense gun.”

The gun also is small and light, and to a child might look like a toy, but Walden says any gun can be safe and any gun can be deadly, it's a matter of how responsible the owner is.

"If they're teaching them to be responsible and they're teaching them to leave mom and daddy's guns alone, then I see no problem with it,” Walden said.

Investigators said they planned to meet with the district attorney to see if charges would be filed against the person that left the gun where Porter could reach it.Coffee County Toddler Shoots Self in Head - Eric Alvarez