California’s Strong Gun Safety Laws Work: New Research from Everytown Reveals that 2023 Marked the Highest Number of Unintentional Shootings by Children Nationwide, with California Ranking 47th for Unintentional Shootings From 2015 to 2023

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Everytown for Gun Safety has released new data highlighting the devastating rise in unintentional shootings by children, finding that 2023 had the highest number of incidents since Everytown started tracking them in 2015. In fact, the annual number of unintentional shootings by children surpassed 400 for the first time since Everytown began its tracking. 

Everytown’s research also shows that California saw 83 unintentional shootings by children from 2015-2023, a rate of 1.15 per one million children. Everytown’s analysis also shows that California ranked 47th in the nation for unintentional shootings by children from 2015-2023, seeing some of the lowest rates in the country.

Roughly once every day in the United States, a child under the age of 18 gains access to a loaded gun and unintentionally shoots themself or someone else. Everytown’s #NotAnAccident Index is a unique database that has tracked more than 3,200 of these shootings by children from 2015 to 2023, resulting in more than 1,200 people killed and more than 2,000 people wounded. 

“California is an example that strong gun safety laws work,” said Amy Haug, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action and a volunteer leader with the Be SMART program in California. “For decades, our state has had a secure storage law for firearms, and the research shows that states with the lowest rates of unintentional shootings by children have these laws in place, but we cannot only rely on our laws. As parents we must do our part – before scheduling that play date, we must ask other adults if they own guns and how they’re stored when our children visit their homes or ride in their cars. That’s how we keep our children safe.” 

Key findings from the new data include:

• The two age groups most likely to unintentionally shoot themself or others are high schoolers between the ages of 14 and 17, followed by preschoolers ages five and younger.
• The victims of shootings by children are most often also children. Over nine in 10 of those wounded or killed in unintentional shootings by children were also under 18 years old.
• Nearly one in every three unintentional shooters were five years old and younger. Over one thousand toddlers and preschoolers since 2015 have come upon a loaded firearm and shot themself or someone else.   
• When children unintentionally shoot another person, the victim is most often a sibling or a friend.
• More than seven in 10 unintentional child shootings occur in or around homes.
• Unintentional shootings occur most frequently at times when children are likely to be home: over the weekend and in the summer.
• Handguns account for the bulk of gun types accessed by children in unintentional shootings. 
• The states with the highest rates of unintentional shootings by children — Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, and Alabama — have weak or no firearm storage laws, while the states with the lowest rates all have storage laws — Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and California.
• 2023 saw the highest number of incidents (411), injuries (270) and total victims (427). Whereas, 2021 saw the second-highest number of incidents (396), but the most deaths (167). 

This one-of-a-kind dataset allows us to identify solutions. Knowing that these shootings largely occur in and around homes and on weekends and over the summer—when children are likely to be home—points to secure firearm storage as a critical answer. Unintentional shootings by children are not accidents, as they are almost always preventable with secure firearm storage practices, awareness, and policies. These avoidable tragedies cause physical and emotional suffering that persists far beyond the initial incident and leave scars on people far beyond the immediate families of those involved. 

Research shows the most effective way to prevent an unintentional shooting is to make sure firearms are stored as securely as possible. That means unloaded, locked, and separate from ammunition. Firearms are not stored securely when they’re placed in an unlocked dresser or nightstand drawer, under a couch cushion, mattress, or pillow, in an unlocked closet, on a high shelf or on top of the refrigerator. 

Be SMART, a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, helps parents and other adults normalize conversations about gun safety and take responsible actions that can prevent child gun deaths and injuries, youth suicide, and gunfire on school grounds. 

The program encourages parents and adults to: 

• Secure all guns in their home and vehicles
• Model responsible behavior around guns
• Ask about the presence of unsecured guns in other homes
• Recognize the role of guns in suicide
• Tell your peers to be SMART

Gun owners must store all of their guns securely at all times; parents need to ask about guns and gun storage at any home their children will be visiting; schools, the medical community, gun shops and gun storage device sellers, and others play a vital role in educating the community about secure gun storage; and community members need to support laws that research has shown are effective in holding adults accountable for failing to store their firearms securely. Read more on solutions to this devastating trend here. For more information on secure firearm storage and the most effective ways to protect children from unsecured firearms, visit BeSMARTforkids.org.

This year, Everytown’s state gun law rankings show whether states’ rankings increased or decreased over the past year, reflecting progress made by passing common-sense gun safety policies or setbacks as a result of enacting dangerous measures backed by the gun lobby. Everytown’s analysis found that California continues to rank first in the nation for the strength of its gun laws.

In an average year, 3,253 people die and 7,293 are wounded by guns in California. California ranks 45th in both gun death rates and societal cost of gun violence at $1,060 per person each year. Gun deaths and injuries cost California $41.9 billion, of which $1.1 billion is paid by taxpayers. More information about gun violence in California is available here.