Gun-related deaths in the United States from both homicide and suicide continue to increase at unprecedented rates, according to U.S. Gun Violence in 2021: An Accounting of a Public Health Crisis, an annual report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
Researchers at the center analyzed the data on firearm deaths for 2021, the most recent available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data show that a rise in gun violence that began in 2019 continued unabated in 2020 and 2021. Gun-related deaths set a record in 2020, which was surpassed in 2021 with close to 49,000 people killed, an average of 134 deaths each day. Violence in general increased during the pandemic, but it was guns that fueled the surge in homicides and suicides: gun homicides rose by 45% while non-gun homicides rose by only 7%. Gun suicides increased by 10% while non-gun suicides decreased by 8%. The 2021 increases in gun-related homicides and suicides are the highest in 40 years.
The rise in gun deaths corresponds with skyrocketing gun sales during the pandemic; new background checks topped a million a week for multiple weeks in 2020 and 2021, higher than at any time since recordkeeping began in 1998. Research shows that countries with greater access to firearms have higher rates of firearm deaths; and according to the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey, the United States far outnumbers other countries when it comes to civilian gun ownership. Though only 4% of the global population, Americans hold nearly 40% of the world's firearms. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, among high-income countries with populations above 10 million, the United States has the highest firearm-related death rate-4.12 per 100,000 population, compared to the second ranked country, Chile, at 1.82 per 100,000 population.
Therese S. Richmond, professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and research core director of the Penn Injury Science Center, partners with communities to mitigate the effects of firearm violence on children and families. She notes that the Johns Hopkins report highlights what she has found in her own work. "Firearm violence is not equally distributed across gender, race, ethnicity, and geography," Richmond said. "A disproportionate burden of firearm violence is borne by Black boys and men who live in high-poverty neighborhoods created by decades of disinvestment."
Black people die from gun violence at 14 times the rate of White people, according to CDC data, and young Black men are particularly vulnerable, with firearm homicide rates 24 times higher than that of young White males. Young Black men account for 36% of gun homicides despite being only 2% of the overall population.
Richmond emphasized the need for a public health approach that recognizes that gun violence doesn't begin with "the finger on a trigger and the bullet entering the body-something that happens in the blink of an eye." Rather, the tendency builds over time, necessitating interventions "far upstream" in the form of opportunities for quality education, employment, and health care, and strong community support.
Richmond called on nurses to use their "knowledge, voices, and positions to reduce firearm-related harms." She recommended they start by familiarizing themselves with the facts about gun violence and then work to "change the conversation from pro-gun/anti-gun" to preventive measures that are "evidence based and also preserve the rights of individuals." For more from Richmond, see Recommendations for Addressing Gun Violence.-Karen Roush, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, news director