Watertown — Only a few of the 23 guns seized from a house where a 14-year-old shot himself in the head over the weekend were properly secured, police said Monday.

The teen survived the gunshot wound and remains in critical but stable condition, Watertown Police Chief Joshua Bernegger said at a news conference.

"The Watertown, Oakville community is heartbroken by this preventable tragedy. We are praying for a speedy and full recovery for our young resident," Bernegger said.

Police continue to investigate the shooting, which appears accidental, he said. Detectives are talking to prosecutors about possible charges. There were no arrests as of Monday morning.

Bernegger said the boy lives with his mother and grandparents and was alone at the time of the shooting. The grandmother arrived home early Saturday afternoon and found him at the bottom of the stairs, conscious but incoherent, and bleeding from the head, Bernegger said. She thought he had fallen down the stairs and called 911.

The teen was taken to Waterbury Hospital and then flown to Connecticut Children's in Hartford.

As police began investigating, they found a "significant amount of blood" in a second-floor bedroom that is used by adults, Bernegger said. It appears the teen was playing with a .22-caliber handgun when he shot himself, Bernegger said.

The chief said only two or three of the 23 guns police confiscated from the home were stored properly.

"Our message to every gun owner is this: Secure your weapons in accordance with the law," Bernegger said.

A similar accident happened in Hartford on Aug. 23 when a 6-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the hand after picking up a gun that his father said was found outside, city police said. The 41-year-old man was later arrested and charged with risk of injury to a minor, police said.

Ethan Song, 15, was shot and killed on Jan. 31, 2018, while handling a .357 Magnum pistol at a neighbor's house.

Connecticut's gun laws prohibit any person from storing or keeping a gun at their homes unless it is securely locked in a box or other container. A new state law that went into effect Sunday specifies that all guns must be stored safely regardless of the presence of minors.

In June 2019, Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill that closed a loophole in the law. Ethan's Law, named after Ethan Song, requires guns to be stored properly whether they are loaded or unloaded.

The pistol that fired the bullet that killed Ethan Song was one of three unattended firearms he and a friend knew were kept in a bedroom closet owned by the friend's father, according to the governor's office. The firearms were stored in a cardboard box inside of a large Tupperware container, and while each of the weapons were secured with operable gun locks, the keys and ammunition for the firearms were inside the same box.

At the time of the deadly shooting, it was a class D felony to improperly store a firearm or leave it where a minor could gain access without permission of a parent or guardian — but only if the stored gun was loaded.

Prosecutors found no evidence to show that the gun was loaded at the time it was accessed, so the owner was not charged with a crime.