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Gun death and violence in the United States by state

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Gun-related suicides and homicides in the United States[1]
Handguns are involved in most U.S. gun homicides.[2]
Gun-related death rates are positively correlated with household gun ownership rates.[3]
A 2023 study concluded that more restrictive state gun policies reduced homicide and suicide gun deaths.[4]

This is a list of US states by gun deaths and rates of violence. In 2021, there were 26,000 gun suicides and 21,000 gun homicides, together making up a sixth of deaths from external causes. Gun deaths make up about half of all suicides, but over 80% of homicides.[5]

Gun deaths in 2021 rose to levels not seen since the 1990s, but remained below rates of the 1970s.[6]

A 2022 study found that guns were the cause of more years lost than any other source of traumatic injury, including motor vehicles.[7]

Gun death rates

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Gun suicide rate by state (2021)[5]
Gun homicide rate by state (2021)[5]
Gun death rate by county (2023)[8]

Data are from the CDC and are for the year 2021.[5] Rates are per 100,000 inhabitants. Gun ownership estimates are from the RAND Corporation.[9]

Gun death rates per 100,000 people
Location Gun
suicide
rate		 Suicide
rate		 Gun
homicide
rate		 Homicide
rate		 %
gun at
home
 United States 7.9 14.5 6.3 7.8 [a]
 Wyoming 23.7 32.8 1.7 2.8 61%
 Montana 21.6 31.7 2.7 4.2 65%
 Alaska 19.4 30.0 4.2 6.7 57%
 New Mexico 14.4 25.2 10.9 14.5 36%
 Oklahoma 13.8 22.0 6.4 8.6 55%
 Idaho 13.8 20.4 1.5 2.2 58%
 North Dakota 13.2 20.1 2.6 3.1 53%
 Nevada 13.1 22.0 6.3 8.4 33%
 Arkansas 12.9 20.4 9.3 11.1 52%
 Colorado 12.8 23.8 4.7 6.3 38%
 West Virginia 12.7 21.0 4.8 6.4 60%
 Alabama 12.4 16.4 12.9 14.8 53%
 Missouri 12.1 19.1 9.9 11.6 53%
 Arizona 12.1 20.3 5.9 7.7 36%
 Oregon 11.9 20.9 3.4 4.8 41%
 Kentucky 11.8 18.1 8.1 9.0 53%
 Kansas 11.8 19.1 4.9 6.1 42%
 Tennessee 11.7 17.5 10.2 11.6 47%
 Maine 11.5 20.2 0.9 1.5 48%
 Vermont 11.5 22.0 [b] 1.5 50%
 Mississippi 11.3 16.3 19.8 22.2 54%
 South Dakota 10.9 22.7 2.8 5.0 55%
 Utah 10.9 19.3 2.1 2.7 40%
 South Carolina 10.5 15.5 10.7 12.6 45%
 Georgia 10.3 15.5 9.5 11.2 38%
 Indiana 10.2 16.6 7.6 9.2 42%
 Louisiana 10.0 14.9 17.4 20.4 52%
 Iowa 9.2 17.2 2.0 2.9 39%
 Florida 8.9 15.4 5.3 6.7 29%
 North Carolina 8.7 13.7 8.1 9.4 37%
 Texas 8.6 14.2 6.6 8.1 36%
 Ohio 8.4 15.0 7.4 8.7 42%
 Wisconsin 8.2 15.3 4.9 5.9 47%
 Virginia 8.2 13.7 5.8 7.0 35%
 Michigan 8.1 14.8 7.0 8.2 39%
 New Hampshire 8.0 16.1 [c] 1.1 46%
 Washington 8.0 15.9 3.3 4.5 32%
 Pennsylvania 7.7 14.5 6.6 8.5 40%
 Delaware 7.6 13.7 8.0 10.3 39%
 Nebraska 7.4 14.7 2.3 3.6 39%
 Minnesota 6.9 14.2 2.9 4.1 39%
 Illinois 5.2 11.5 10.2 11.7 23%
 Maryland 5.0 10.1 9.6 11.5 17%
 California 4.0 10.6 4.7 6.4 16%
 Connecticut 3.4 11.1 3.2 4.4 19%
 Rhode Island 3.3 10.7 2.5 3.7 14%
 Hawaii 2.9 14.0 1.6 2.7 9%
 New York 2.2 8.4 3.1 4.6 14%
 New Jersey 2.1 7.4 3.0 4.4 9%
 Massachusetts 1.9 8.6 1.4 2.3 9%
 District of Columbia 1.8 6.9 25.2 33.3 [d]

Gun death totals

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Data are from the CDC and are for the year 2021.[5]

Missing values indicate between 1 and 9 deaths for the year, so the specific figure is suppressed.[11]

Gun deaths by intent
State Gun
deaths		 Suicide Homicide Accident Law
 United States 48,830 26,328 20,958 549 537
 Texas 4,613 2,528 1,942 53 38
 California 3,576 1,575 1,861 32 89
 Florida 3,142 1,928 1,150 18 25
 Georgia 2,200 1,115 1,021 25 22
 Illinois 1,995 656 1,292 15 18
 Ohio 1,911 991 872 21 12
 Pennsylvania 1,905 997 861 25 13
 North Carolina 1,839 916 850 46 15
 Tennessee 1,569 814 714 11
 Michigan 1,544 810 701
 Missouri 1,414 747 609 24 15
 Arizona 1,365 879 430 26
 Alabama 1,315 623 650 19 11
 Louisiana 1,314 463 804 27
 Indiana 1,251 695 517 15 10
 Virginia 1,248 709 505 12
 South Carolina 1,136 546 558 21
 New York 1,078 439 613 15
 Colorado 1,064 745 276 29
 Mississippi 962 333 583 21
 Kentucky 947 534 364 25
 Maryland 915 310 592 0
 Washington 896 617 254
 Oklahoma 836 551 257 11
 Wisconsin 793 484 290
 Arkansas 698 391 281 11
 Oregon 670 505 146 12
 Nevada 633 413 199
 New Mexico 578 305 230 26
 Minnesota 573 393 164 10
 Kansas 503 345 145 10
 New Jersey 475 195 276 0
 Utah 450 364 70
 Iowa 364 293 64
 West Virginia 319 227 86
 Idaho 309 262 28 11
 Montana 280 239 30
 Connecticut 248 122 116
 Massachusetts 247 136 99 0
 Nebraska 200 145 46
 District of Columbia 185 12 169 0
 Alaska 182 142 31
 Maine 178 158 12
 Delaware 158 76 80 0
 Wyoming 155 137 10
 North Dakota 128 102 20 0
 South Dakota 128 98 25 0
 New Hampshire 123 111
 Vermont 83 74 0
 Hawaii 71 42 23
 Rhode Island 64 36 27 0

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ No data from RAND source. Gallup reports about 40% of adults in the US live with a gun.[10]
  2. ^ Vermont had between 1 and 9 gun murders in 2021, so the specific figure is suppressed.[11] If it had 5 gun murders, its gun murder rate would be 0.8 per 100 thousand.
  3. ^ New Hampshire had between 1 and 9 gun murders in 2021, so the specific figure is suppressed.[11] If it had 5 gun murders, its gun murder rate would be 0.4 per 100 thousand.
  4. ^ No data available.

References

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  1. ^ ● Data through 2016: "Guns / Firearm-related deaths". NSC.org copy of U.S. Government (CDC) data. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. December 2017. Archived from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved August 29, 2018. (archive of actual data).
    ● 2017 data: Howard, Jacqueline (December 13, 2018). "Gun deaths in US reach highest level in nearly 40 years, CDC data reveal". CNN. Archived from the original on December 13, 2018. (2017 CDC data)
    ● 2018 data: "New CDC Data Show 39,740 People Died by Gun Violence in 2018". efsgv.org. January 31, 2020. Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. (2018 CDC data)
    ● 2019-2023 data: "Past Summary Ledgers". Gun Violence Archive. January 2024. Archived from the original on 5 January 2024.
  2. ^ ● Murder Victims by Weapon, 2012–2016, Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020. (used only for 2012 and 2013 data)
    ● Murder Victims by Weapon, 2014–2018, Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Archived from the original on January 18, 2020.
    ● Murder Victims by Weapon, 2015–2019, Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program. Archived from the original on November 22, 2020.
  3. ^ Mortality data from "Firearm Mortality by State". cdc.gov. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. 2022. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. The number of deaths per 100,000 total population. Source: wonder.cdc.gov ● Household firearm ownership data from Schell, Terry L.; Peterson, Samuel; Vegetabile, Brian G.; Scherling, Adam; Smart, Rosanna; Morral, Andrew R. (April 22, 2020). "State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership". rand.org. RAND Corporation. p. 21. Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. Fig. 2. PDF file (download link)
  4. ^ Sharkey, Patrick; Kang, Megan (November 2023). "The Era of Progress on Gun Mortality: State Gun Regulations and Gun Deaths from 1991 to 2016". Epidemiology. 34 (6): 786–792. doi:10.1097/EDE.0000000000001662. Fig. 2. ● Sharkey et al. are cited by Lopez, German (November 1, 2023). "A Drop in American Gun Violence". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 2, 2023. Trendline is from Times article.
  5. ^ a b c d e "Underlying Cause of Death". cdc.gov. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
  6. ^ "What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S." pewresearch.org. 26 Apr 2023. Retrieved 16 Feb 2024.
  7. ^ Klein, Joshua; Prabhakaran, Kartik; Latifi, Rifat; Rhee, Peter (4 Feb 2022). "Firearms: the leading cause of years of potential life lost". Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open. 7: e000766. doi:10.1136/tsaco-2021-000766. PMC 8819782. PMID 35141422. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
  8. ^ Find the "2023 CHR CSV Analytic Data" link. "Rankings Data & Documentation". County Health Rankings. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
  9. ^ "State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership". rand.org. 22 Apr 2020. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
  10. ^ "What Percentage of Americans Own Guns?". gallup.com. 13 Nov 2020. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
  11. ^ a b c "Data Release Questions". cdc.gov. 31 Aug 2023. Retrieved 11 Feb 2024.
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