New Everytown Report: More Than 70 Percent of Homicides of Transgender People Involve a Firearm, with Disproportionate Impacts on Black Trans Women

To Commemorate Trans Day of Remembrance, New Report Analyzes Hundreds of Homicides of Trans People to Help Inform Gun Violence Prevention Policy, Educate Around this Epidemic, Honor Those Taken

One in Three Perpetrators of Homicides of Trans People Were Legally Prohibited From Possessing a Firearm, According to Report 

NEW YORK – In commemoration of Trans Day of Remembrance, Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund today released a new report analyzing the homicides of hundreds of transgender and gender-expansive people to better inform gun violence prevention policy, educate the public on the role of firearms in homicides of trans people, and honor those taken. The new report found that a gun was used in more than 70 percent of homicides of transgender people in the United States and Puerto Rico from January 2017 through December 2022. 

“Today serves as a stark reminder of the disproportionate violence endured by the trans community, and the innocent lives that were stolen because of hatred,” said Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action. “This research reaffirms a troubling trend we’ve seen for years: weak gun safety laws coupled with bigotry place trans individuals at deadly risk, particularly Black trans women. Our movement remains committed to honoring their lives and advocating for lawmakers to disarm hate.”

“There is a direct connection between policy decisions and the safety of marginalized communities. To keep trans and gender-expansive people safe, lawmakers at every level must take action to prioritize legislation that protects individuals from discrimination and hate-motivated violence based on a victim’s gender identity, ” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, Senior Director of Research at Everytown for Gun Safety. “Today and every day, we honor the trans lives that were tragically taken by pushing our lawmakers to build a world where every person, no matter their identity, is safe from violence.”

Key findings from today’s report include:

• A gun was used in more than seven in 10 homicides of transgender people. 
• Sixty-five percent of transgender gun homicide victims were Black trans women. Yet among the general U.S. population, only seven percent of gun homicide victims are Black women.
• Nearly six in 10 trans homicide victims were under the age of 30.
• More than one in three identified gun homicide perpetrators were legally prohibited from possessing a firearm due to prior felony convictions or other dangerous histories. 
• A disproportionate number of trans gun homicides took place in the south, and Florida and Texas together were home to nearly one out of every five trans gun homicides.
• Nearly one in five trans victims of homicide were killed by an intimate partner or family member.
• Trans people killed with a gun were nearly twice as likely to be killed by a family member or intimate partner than were gun homicide victims generally. 
• The proportion of known perpetrators who were prohibited from possessing guns was even higher in instances of intimate partner violence—four in 10 were prohibited from having a gun.
• One-third of transgender homicide victims experienced housing insecurity or homelessness. The majority of those victims were killed with a gun.

The report calls for strong gun violence prevention policies such as requiring background checks on all gun sales, raising the age to purchase a gun and prohibiting people with dangerous histories, such as convicted felons and domestic abusers, from having guns. Measures that combat discrimination against trans people, as well as those that improve housing security and reduce poverty, could also help save trans lives.

As highlighted in the report, a number of factors make it difficult to understand the full scope of violence against trans people. Research has found that more than one in five news articles about trans homicides deadnamed the victim, and similar errors on the part of law enforcement have hampered reporting on violent crimes against trans people. Combined with a lack of mandatory hate crime reporting to the FBI, and inconsistent and often inadequate state-level hate crime laws – which may not include crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity – make for a challenging research landscape. It also makes this research all the more necessary. 

This tragic trend isn’t happening in a vacuum. Transgender people are 2.5 times as likely to be victims of violence as cisgender people. Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund’s EveryStat tool has tracked homicides of transgender and gender-expansive people in the U.S. since 2017. In addition to breaking down gun violence to the state- and county level, the platform includes a database of known trans or gender-nonconforming homicide victims in the United States.