CNN:

It happened in just seconds, by all accounts.

A gunshot killed a lawman's wife this weekend in Lebanon, Tennessee. And the tragedy is one more instance of gun violence reverberating across a nation obsessed and at odds over the politics of firearms.

A pistol in the hands of a 4-year-old boy went off Saturday and killed Josephine Fanning, the 48-year-old wife of Wilson County Sheriff's Deputy Daniel Fanning.

The incident occurred at a cookout on what had been a lazy, happy day.

The deputy and a relative went into a bedroom to look at some of the lawman's guns, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kristin Helm said.

Josephine Fanning and the boy walked into the room later.

At some point, the boy picked up a loaded pistol from a bed, she said. The gun involved was Fanning's personal weapon, not his service pistol, she said.

The single shot killed the woman. Now, the community — just east of Nashville — is beside itself with grief.