Toddlers playing with guns have inadvertently shot themselves or other people at least 43 times so far this year.

Shocking research has revealed the true extent of shootings involving children under the age of four - with roughly one a week taking place in the US.

In 31 of the cases, the child shot themselves after finding a gun - with 13 dying.

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Toddlers playing with guns have inadvertently shot themselves or other people at least 43 times so far this year. Kaleb Ahles (left) and Jonathan Kaufman both shot themselves dead after finding their father's handguns in separate incidents

At least 10 more children aged three or younger injured other people, as well as two that shot people dead.

The cases were collated by the Washington Post, which found that just four of the shootings were committed by young girls.

Two-year-old Kaleb Ahles, from Florida, accidentally shot himself dead with his father's .380 caliber handgun in January.

Kaleb shot himself in the chest after finding the pistol inside the glove box of his parents' car as they moved house.

Jonathan Kaufman, from Michigan, killed himself in June after finding a loaded pistol in his father's closet.

His father and older brother were outside when the three-year-old fatally wounded himself with a single shot to the head.

Joanthan Kaufman (left) and Braylon Robinson (right) were both killed by guns this year. Braylon, one, was accidentally killed by his three-year-old brother

Another three-year-old boy shot himself in the face in Texas after finding a .380 semiautomatic pistol in his grandfather's bedroom.

He was taken to hospital by an air ambulance but later died.

Young children have almost killed others with guns this year, including a toddler who shot his one-year-old brother dead.

Braylon Robinson was inadvertently killed by his three-year-old brother in Cleveland, Ohio, in April after finding an unattended gun.

Police said at the time that they would seek charges against whoever left the gun within reach of children.

A two-year-old in Alabama accidentally shot his father in the head in August.

Divine Vaniah Chambliss, 31, was found dead by his son's mother later that day when she returned from work.

The boy reportedly found the gun while his father was napping, and later told his mother: 'I hurt my dad.'

A three-year-old toddler (face obscured) inadvertently shot his mother Monique Villescas (pictured) and father Justin Reynolds with a single bullet

The child reached into Miss Villescas' (pictured being loaded into an ambulance) handbag for an iPod but instead pulled out a gun

Mr Reynolds was shot in the right buttock by his son while they were in a motel room in New Mexico

In February this year another three-year-old boy shot and injured his heavily pregnant mother and his father with a single bullet. The unnamed toddler, three, was in a motel room in Albuquerque, New Mexico, with his mother Monique Villescas and father Justin Reynolds when the child reached into her bag for his mom's iPod, only to pull out a gun instead. Seconds later he fired one shot, with the bullet tearing through his father's right buttock and then striking his eight-months pregnant mother in the arm. The pair were rushed to hospital and went on to recover.

Meanwhile last week a two-year-old in South Carolina shot his grandmother in the back after finding a gun in his great aunt's car.

The boy found the .357 magnum revolver in the pocket behind the passenger seat and is believed to have fired through the front passenger seat, where the 40-year-old woman was sitting.