Every day, more than 100 Americans are killed with guns and 200 more are shot and wounded. The effects of gun violence extend far beyond these casualties—gun violence shapes the lives of millions of Americans who witness it, know someone who was shot, or live in fear of the next shooting.

In order to illustrate the magnitude of everyday gun violence, Everytown has gathered the most comprehensive, publicly available data. Still, significant data gaps remain—a result of underfunded, incomplete data collection at the state and federal level. Filling these gaps is necessary to truly understand the full impact of gun violence in the United States.

Gun Deaths by Intent

Average Deaths per Year

Total 37,603

Note: This police shootings category is believed to be underreported and is likely being misclassified as homicide. Mapping Police Violence’s database is widely cited and estimates that over 1,000 people are fatally shot by police in an average year—twice as many as recorded by the CDC.

Suicide

Nearly two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides. The U.S. gun suicide rate is 10 times that of other high-income countries.

Access to a gun triples the risk of death by suicide. Gun suicides are concentrated in states with high rates of gun ownership.

White men represent 74 percent of firearm suicide victims in America.

3x Access to a gun triples the risk of death by suicide. Anglemyer A., Horvath T., and Rutherford G. “The Accessibility of Firearms and Risk for Suicide and Homicide Victimization Among Household Members: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis”. Annals of Internal Medicine. (2014).

Homicide

One-third of gun deaths are homicides. The U.S. gun homicide rate is 25 times that of other high-income countries.

Access to a gun doubles the risk of death by homicide.

Gun homicides are concentrated in cities—half of all gun homicides took place in just 127 cities, which represented nearly a quarter of the U.S. population. Within these cities, gun homicides are most prevalent in racially segregated neighborhoods with high rates of poverty.

Black Americans represent the majority of gun homicide victims. In fact, Black Americans are 10 times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide.

The U.S. gun homicide rate is 25 times that of other high-income countries. Source: Erin Grinshteyn and David Hemenway. “Violent Death Rates in the US Compared to Those of the Other High-Income Countries, 2015” .

Children and Teens

Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens.

More than 1,700 children and teens die by gun homicide every year. For children under the age of 13, these gun homicides most frequently occur in the home and are often connected to domestic or family violence.

Black children and teens are 14 times more likely than white children and teens of the same age to die by gun homicide.

Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and teens. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Injury prevention & control: Data & statistics (WISQARS).

Domestic Violence

Women in the U.S. are 21 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries.

In an average month, 53 American women are shot to death by an intimate partner, and many more are shot and wounded.

Nearly one million women alive today have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Approximately 4.5 million American women alive today have been threatened with a gun by an intimate partner.

Access to a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed.

1M Nearly 1 million women alive today have been shot or shot at by an intimate partner. Everytown for Gun Safety. “Guns and Violence Against Women: America’s Uniquely Lethal Intimate Partner Violence Problem”. Everytown for Gun Safety. (2019). https://bit.ly/3iSYzAn

Impact on Americans

58 percent of American adults or someone they care for have experienced gun violence in their lifetime.

Approximately three million American children witness gun violence every year.