AUSTIN — Texas leads the nation in the number of unintentional shootings by children so far this year, with more than half of reported shootings occurring in the Houston area.

In Texas, there have been 22 shootings involving children under 18 years old using an unsecured firearm so far this year, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. Nine incidents happened in Houston, with two others in Spring and another two in Katy.

San Antonio has seen two such unintentional shootings and two others occurred in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The number of accidental shootings has spiked in recent years in Texas, which has more registered firearms than any other state. The number of such shootings resulting in injury or death climbed from 26 cases in 2015 to 32 incidents in 2017, according to the database. Last year saw a significant dip to 25 cases, although Texas is likely to eclipse that number.

“It’s not like tripping on a sidewalk crack. This is something that can be prevented by people in the household,” said Anna Carpenter, a volunteer and Houston-area spokesman for Moms Demand Action, which advocates for stiffer gun safety measures. She advised parents to ask whether any guns in the house are secured before agreeing to play dates.

In one case last month, a 3-year-old boy assumed to be sleeping grabbed a loaded gun sitting on the top of a dresser and shot himself in the face. The boy, the cousin of a Washington Redskins football player, later died. Three days later in Houston, a 2-year-old boy climbing a couch at his aunt’s house found a gun and shot himself in the hand and leg in Houston.

The Texas Department of State Health Services could not confirm the numbers because the most recent death data on record dates to 2016.

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Given the uptick, state lawmakers agreed to spend $1 million on a public safety campaign encouraging people to lock up their guns. Gov. Greg Abbott suggested such a campaign in 2018 following the school shooting in Santa Fe after a 17-year-old used his father’s .38-revolver and a shotgun to gun down 23 people, killing 10.

It is legal for gun owners to keep or store a loaded firearm and keep it readily accessible for self defense. Gun owners are given information about gun safety and storage when they buy guns, and when they undergo training for a license to carry. The National Rifle Association offers the “Eddie Eagle” program to teach children not to touch guns they find and instead alert an adult, said Alice Tripp, a longtime lobbyist for the Texas State Rifle Association.

“All I’m saying is all of this stuff is out there and in the public and it’s not new,” she said. “Maybe we have distracted parenting,” with parents spending too much time on their cell phones, she added.

At least 146 unintentional shootings have happened across the country this year. Trailing behind Texas is Tennessee, a state with a quarter of the population and just fewer than half of the unintentional shootings. Tennessee has had 12 such shootings in 2019, according to the database, although the Childrens Firearm Safety Alliance found Tennessee had 14 cases between January and June.

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Last year, Louisiana led the country with 26 unintentional shootings. So far this year, Louisiana has had 6 reported cases.

Gun owners can be charged with criminal negligence if a child under 17 years old gets access to a loaded firearm where the owner knew or should have known the child would gain access to it. State law prohibits charging a gun owner with a crime if the child was supervised by an adult and were hunting or using the firearm for other lawful purposes, was used in self defense or if the child illegally entered the property.

andrea.zelinski@chron.com