Thanksgiving is intended to be a time of reflection and gratitude, but unfortunately, shootings mar the holiday each year.
Data from the Gun Violence Archive of figures from Thanksgiving week from 2019-2023 determine that the top three states with the most shooting incidents near the holiday are Texas, California, and Florida.
States With The Most Shooting Incidents on Thanksgiving
Between 2019 and 2023, Texas had the most shootings in the week of Thanksgiving than any other state with a total of 171. Houston saw 43 incidents of gun violence in that timeframe while San Antonino was the second-most Thanksgiving-shooting-prone Texas city with 16 incidents.
In this timeframe, 26 of the shootings in Texas during Thanksgiving week were accidental. Three were in Houston, and none were in San Antonio
California had 159 gun violence incidents in the week of Thanksgiving between 2019 and 2023. Los Angeles had the most shootings in that timeframe with 22 incidents, followed by Sacramento with eight shootings.
Nine of these shootings were accidental in California. None of the accidental shootings were in LA or Sacramento.
Florida had 108 gun violence incidents in the week of Thanksgiving between 2019 and 2023. Jacksonville had a total of 10 shooting instances in that timeframe, followed by Daytona Beach with nine shootings.
Flordia had 13 accidentals during Thanksgiving week but none of them were in Jacksonville or Daytona.
Wyoming and Hawaii both had only one shooting during Thanksgiving week between 2019 and 2023. The one in Wyoming was an accidental shooting.
Maine (one accidental shooting), Rhode Island, South Dakota (two accidental shootings), and Vermont all had two shootings during the examined timeframe.
Unintentional Shootings on Thanksgiving
Brady: United Against Gun Violence, a nonprofit organization that advocates for gun control and against gun violence, used data from the Gun Violence Archive to determine that most unintentional shootings happen during the weeks of Independence Day, New Year’s, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
The week of Thanksgiving (November 19-25) ranked third in the top 10 weeks with the highest average number of unintentional shooting deaths of all ages between 2018 and 2022.
The week of Independence Day (July 2- 8) takes the top spot with New Year’s Day (January 1-7) occupying second place.
Colleen Creighton, Brady’s End Family Fire program, explained to Newsweek why the holidays bring on an increase in unintentional gun violence.
“Lots of times, it’s family is together in different surroundings,” Creighton said Tuesday. “Kids are maybe visiting their grandparents or relatives, and those individuals are not used to having children at home, so they’re not safely storing their guns.”
“Also, sometimes kids are curious and the parents are all focused on either meal prep, or watching a game or something of that, the kids are a little bit more together, and kids are curious and they’re going to go search the house. They’re going to go search for stuff to do, and so they’ll end up finding guns.”
“I think it all comes down to the fact that, all too often, in these incidents, guns are not safely or securely stored.”
Unintentional Shootings by State
A recent analysis released by Brady found that states with weaker gun laws and higher rates of firearm ownership experience more unintentional shootings by children (ages 0-17) each year compared to states with stronger gun laws.
Texas, which lacks a safe storage law and has the highest rate of gun ownership in the country, consistently leads in the number of unintentional shootings by children. In contrast, Rhode Island—a state with robust firearm regulations, including mandatory safe storage laws, and the lowest rate of gun ownership—reported no such incidents on average.
Research highlights that when children have easy access to firearms, the risk of unintentional shootings rises significantly. The act of a child inadvertently pulling a trigger can result in devastating consequences for families and communities.
Previous studies further connect the dots between recent firearm acquisitions and increased risks of unintentional injury and death among young children under 12.
COVID and Unintentional Shootings Involving Children
Unintentional shootings involving children in the U.S. spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brady’s analysis of data from 2018 to 2022 found 237 shootings perpetrated by children (ages 0-17) in 2018.
That number slightly increased to 256 in 2019, but then spiked to 428 in 2020 and 409 in 2021.
There were 341 perpetrated shootings perpetrated by children (ages 0-17) in 2018.
“You saw that the shootings were slightly down from 2021,” Creighton explained to Newsweek. “Part of that reason is during COVID, when everybody was home, that’s where you saw a number of incidents for a couple of reasons: You saw a spike in gun ownership. More people were buying guns because they had more free time.”
“Some people were saying, ‘Now, I have time to go more range.’ They had more time and when you’re home, you can go to the gun range. There was just a lot of times people didn’t feel safe. There’s just a lot of increasing guns in the community,” Creighton said.
Advice for gun owners this holiday season
Creighton stressed the importance of ensuring gun safety multiple times in her conversation with Newsweek.
She advised gun owners to “know where all your guns are and ensure that they are securely stored.”
“What that means is that we leave that up to the individual. So it could be a cable lock, could be a trigger lock, could be a safe, just make sure that the gun is securely storage and away from access to those who shouldn’t have access,” Creighton said.
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