'A Public Health Crisis'

Joe Loudon • COMBAT Communications Administrator

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2024

The number of dead was startling: more than 45,000 lives lost in 2021, an 11.6% spike in a single year. “We’re killing each other at a rate [nearly] higher than ever before, and something needs to be done,” declared the executive director for a national nonprofit agency dedicated to reducing fatalities—on the nation’s roads.

This increase in deaths due to motor vehicle traffic crashes had the Center for Auto Safety and others sounding alarms in 2022. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pet Buttigieg called the deadly trend “a crisis… we must address together.”

» More People Are Dying On U.S. Roads, Even As Cars Get Safer
CNBC · May 22, 2022

Now consider these numbers:

Firearm fatalities in the U.S. outpaced deaths from motor vehicle accidents each year between 2018 and 2022. That’s just a fact, based on Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) data, which prompted the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, to issue an advisory in early 2024 that stressed the death toll among America's young:

“Firearm violence in America is a public health crisis. Since 2020, firearm-related injury has been the leading cause of death for U.S. children and adolescents (ages 1-19), surpassing motor vehicle crashes, cancer, and drug overdose and poisoning.”

» Firearm Violence: A Public Health Crisis In America
The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory · 2024

This crisis is especially severe in our state as Missouri has significantly higher rates of firearm fatalities than the nation as a whole. For the record, Missouri’s motor vehicle fatality rates, 2018-22, also exceeded national rates. Only Missouri and New Mexico ranked among the "top 10" states in each of these three categories over this five-year period: rates of death per 100,000 people for 1.) all firearm-related fatalities, 2.) firearm-related homicides and 3.) firearm-related suicides.

JUST THE FACTS

→ Missouri’s 9.8 firearm homicide rate per 100,000 people during this five-year span (January 1, 2018 – December 31, 2022) was 1.66 times higher than the national rate, 5.4.

→ Among the 50 states, only Mississippi (15.4), Louisiana (14.4) and Alabama (11.2) had a higher rate than Missouri’s 9.8.

→ Firearm homicides claimed 88,365 lives across the United States between 2018 and 2022. That was a rate of one every half-hour of every day for half a decade.

→ A firearm was the cause of death in 77.9% of the 113,427 homicides committed in the United States, according to the CDC's 2018-22 data.

→ That percentage is even higher in Missouri, with a firearm being the weapon used in 84.9% of 3,549 homicides.

→ Among the 10 states with the lowest rates, five are in New England: Rhode Island (1.6), Massachusetts (1.5), Vermont (1.3), Maine (1.0) and New Hampshire (a nation-low 0.9).

→ All four of the nation's most populous states had rates at or below the 5.4 national number (listed by U.S. Census Bureau population estimates): California (39.03 million), 4.0; Texas (30.03 million), 5.4; Florida (22.24 million), 5.1; and New York (19.68 million), 2.4.

» Chart Listing Firearm Homicide Rate For Each State

JUST THE FACTS

→ A common misconception is that homicides account for most firearm-related deaths. In the United States, the 88,365 firearm homicides between the beginning of 2018 and end of 2022 represented less than half—39.9%—of all firearm fatalities.

→ Of the 221,703 firearm fatalities in U.S., 56.9% were deaths by suicide.

→ The CDC recorded 126,025 fatal firearm suicides during this five-year span. About 1% of firearm fatalities are "preventable/accidental," according to the National Safety Council (NSC)—with a remaining 2-3% being classified "undetermined." From 2013 to 2022, the NSC tracked a 43.3% increase in "total gun-related deaths."

» NSC Injury Facts

→ Over the five-year period (2018-22), the United States averaged more than 121 firearm fatalities per day—or about five an hour.

→ Missouri had the seventh highest firearm fatality rate in the U.S. at 22.4—1.68 times higher than the national 13.3 rate and 6.1 times higher than Massachusetts' lowest-in-the-country 3.7.

→ Mississippi also has the nation's highest fatality rate (27.1) for all deaths involving firearms.

JUST THE FACTS

→ The percentages for Missouri firearm deaths (2018-22) aligned closely with national figures:

Suicides	54.4% Missouri	56.9% Nationally
Homicides	42.3% Missouri	39.9% Nationally

→ Of all the suicides committed in America during this half-decade, 52.6% involved a firearm. In Missouri that percentage was even higher: 62.2%.

→ The District of Columbia had far and away the largest gap in homicide and suicide firearm fatality rates: a national-high 20.5 homicide rate compared to a lowest-in-the-nation 1.6 suicide rate.

→ The gender breakdown of deaths by suicide using a firearm is immense: 86.9% male and 13.1% female (2018-22)—109,480 deaths compared to 16,545.

St. Louis & KC Areas Have Gun Violence Rates Much Higher Than Chicago's

Between 2018 and 2022, only seven other U.S. counties with a population of 250,000 or more had a higher firearm homicide rate than Jackson County's 22.4 per 100,000 people. Our county's rate was more than four times higher than the national 5.4 rate. > MORE
Missouri Firearm Death Rates Among Nation's Highest

Missouri had among the 10 highest rates in the U.S. in these three categories (2018-22): firearm homicides, firearm suicides and all firearm fatalities. New York state had three times the population of our state but nearly 2,100 fewer firearm homicides. > MORE
No 'Wealthy' Nation Has A Higher Firearm Homicide Rate Than U.S.

Of the world’s 25 "wealthiest" nations, America had the worst firearm homicide rate in 2021. And it wasn’t even close. The U.S. averaged 57 firearm homicides a day in 2021, the exact same number the United Kingdom would experience over a two-year period. > MORE
'Culturally Unfathomable' Shooting Shocks World

An assassin, using a homemade gun, murdered Japan's former prime minister Shinzo Abe in 2022. In a nation where people "take peace for granted" and the firearm homicide rate is near world-low 0.005 per 100,000 such a crime is "culturally unfathomable." > MORE