New Data Shows a Nearly 50% Increase Over Previous Estimates, Confirming the Massive Public Safety Crisis at Hand: From 2015 to 2025, Everytown’s #NotAnAccident Index Tracked Over 3,800 Unintentional Shootings By Children
NEW YORK – Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and Moms Demand Action today responded to a staggering new study published in JAMA Network Open which found that nearly 7 million children in the United States live in households with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm. This new estimate – an update to the 2015 and 2021 National Firearms Surveys – represents a nearly 50 percent increase from previous research, which placed the number at 4.6 million children.
The findings come at a time when firearms remain the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S. Roughly once every day, a child under 18 gains access to a loaded gun and unintentionally shoots themselves or someone else. Everytown’s #NotAnAccident Index, a unique database tracking these preventable tragedies, has recorded more than 3,800 unintentional shootings by children from 2015 to 2025, resulting in nearly 1,500 deaths and nearly 2,500 injuries.
“We’ve seen time and time again that when guns aren’t securely stored, children pay the price. That’s why our Be SMART program exists—to help families understand and reduce these risks,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “Whether it’s suicide, an unintentional shooting, or another preventable tragedy, keeping firearms unloaded, locked, and separate from ammunition is one of the simplest ways to save lives. Gun ownership must come with the responsibility to make sure kids can never access a deadly weapon.”
“There is no such thing as an accidental shooting by a child. The onus to keep guns out of reach is always on adults,” said Sonali Rajan, Senior Director of Research at Everytown for Gun Safety. “When children unintentionally fire a gun, the victims are very often the children themselves or their own siblings, cousins, or friends. These shootings leave families and communities grappling with grief and regret, along with years of physical, emotional, and often legal and financial consequences.”
Unintentional shootings by children are not “accidents” – they are preventable tragedies. Research shows that secure storage is a simple, effective way to protect homes, schools, and communities from multiple forms of gun violence, including unintentional shootings, suicide, and mass shootings. What’s more, according to the U.S. Secret Service, roughly three-quarters of school shooters acquired their firearm from the home of a parent or close relative.
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.
The impact of common sense legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of kids is clear: States with secure storage or child-access prevention laws had the lowest rates of unintentional child shootings. Rates of unintentional shootings by children were 35 percent lower in states with laws that require gun owners to store firearms securely (“locking laws”), compared to states without secure storage laws.
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.