INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 4-year-old boy was recovering Monday after he shot himself with a gun in his own home.

It’s the third child shot in 11 days under similar circumstances in Indianapolis.

Police are among those pleading with gun owners to lock up their firearms; gunlocks or gun safes, either or both work.

After Monday’s incident, the boy was in serious condition but police said he has stabilized.

Police officers are among people who hope this incident is the one that gets even those who aren’t parents to change bad habits.

“We hear about these things entirely too frequently,” said Mark Welter, retail manager at Indy Arms Co.

Welter said fewer than half of people who buy a gun buy a lockbox at the same time.

Many ask about a safety switch for the gun, but he reminds gun owners that “all they got to do is flip and then the gun is dangerous again.”

He’s also the father of a teenager and, with all the electronics that are out there, flipping a switch is “nothing,” Welter said. “Kids are actually curious; what does this do? If it moves, they’re going to move it.”

He showed News 8 some of the high-end lockboxes that will open with a programmed fingerprint. Cheaper ones that require a key are about $50.

“It’s a very small investment compared to the cost of a firearm itself,” Welter said.

Gunlocks cost well below that. One at Indy Arms costs just $4.95. If that’s too much, Welter said, just ask.

Most guns are sold with one from the manufacturer, too.

“It’s so easy for parents to make their guns accessible to kids or inaccessible to anybody that they don’t want to have access to them,” Welter said.

Police were still investigating Monday’s incident inside an apartment in the Pangea Prairies Apartments at East 46th Street and North Arlington Avenue, but told News 8 that parents were around and called 911. They are not releasing many more details, including where the gun was, where the boy was shot or what the adults were doing at the time of the shooting.

On Sept. 6, police say a girl under the age of 10 shot two of her sisters, ages 2 and 5, on the 3000 block of Colorado Avenue. Police said there was a loaded shotgun in the closet.

IMPD made its own plea after Monday’s shooting.

“As a mother, as a police officer, as a gun owner, we all have to make sure that we are extremely cautious with weapons in our residence,” said Officer Genae Cook. “Any child can pick it up.’

It’s a reminder that this message isn’t just for parents, but aunts and uncles and grandparents, too; basically any gun owner whose home a curious child might visit.

“It happens too often and it’s so easily preventable,” Welter said. “It’s very, very disappointing anytime something like this happens.”

Welter said the wrong thing for gun owners to do, especially parents, is hide guns. Instead, he advises talking to kids about guns. Take the mystery away. Take them to the range and teach them gun safety so that when they are around a gun, whether it’s your house or someone else’s, they will know what to do and what not to do.

“I wish any time somebody came in to buy their first gun, they would sign up for a training class and buy a lockbox,” Welter said. “Those three things go hand-in-hand-in-hand as far as having a means to defend yourself, knowledge and skills to do so and being able to keep the gun safe when you’re not actually carrying it. It seems like a no-brainer but obviously a lot of people don’t.”

Welter said he doesn’t believe another law would help and, in many cases, would only be an additional penalty to a grieving parent or another loved one.