Firearm deaths grow, disparities widen.
Firearm deaths continue to be a significant
and growing public health problem in the United States.
In 2020,
79% of all homicides
and 53% of all suicides involved firearms.
From 2019 to 2020,
the firearm homicide rate
increased about 35%, and the firearm
suicide rate stayed high.
The firearm homicide rate in 2020
was the highest recorded in over 25 years.
Young people,
males, and Black people have the highest firearm
homicide rates and experienced the largest increases
in 2020.
The suicide rate grew the most for
American Indian and Alaska Native people.
Counties with the highest poverty level
had firearm homicide rates 4.5 times
as high and firearm suicide rates
1.3 times as high as counties with the lowest poverty level.
The reasons for the increasing rates
and widening disparities are likely complex.
Multiple stressors associated with the COVID-19
pandemic may have contributed to the increases.
Firearm deaths
are preventable - not inevitable -
and everyone has a role to play in prevention.
To learn more, visit www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns
Information for healthcare
and service providers.
Hospital-based programs
that intervene with victims of violence
can prevent future violence, and interventions
with those at risk for suicide can prevent
future reattempts.
Counseling and education
paired with giving out a safety device, like a lockbox,
are associated with safer firearm
storage practices in the home.
Community organizations,
hospitals, and clinics
can expand access to social,
emotional, physical,
and mental health services and supports
to prevent substance use and suicide attempts and to address
trauma associated with violence and prevent the continuation of violence.
Information for Community Partners
Community and street outreach programs
engage populations at higher risk for firearm violence
and connect them with community services
while reducing tensions that may lead to violence.
Individuals, communities, and businesses
can promote safe firearm storage practices
to reduce unauthorized use of a firearm.
Many approaches, like mentoring,
supporting norms against intimate partner and other violence,
teaching coping and problem-solving skills,
and programs to prevent substance
use, have far-reaching benefits,
including increasing well-being and reducing key risks
for all types of violence.
Enhancing and maintaining green spaces,
like cleaning vacant lots and planting
grass and trees in high-risk areas,
can change the physical and social conditions
that contribute to violence and inequities.
Revitalized vacant lots
in communities are associated with reduced
firearm assaults in the areas with the highest poverty.
Information for local and state governments.
Communities and governments
can use data to select effective
and sustainable programs and policies
to address the underlying conditions
that contribute to violence inequities and enhance
safe firearm practices.
Policies to address household
and economic stability can have a long-term impact
by reducing family poverty and other risk factors for violence.