Black History Month: Key Research Stats

Gun Violence Survivors

The trauma of gun violence does not end when the experience of gun violence stops. Experiencing gun violence has lasting impacts on survivors, their families, and their communities.

• 71 percent of Black adults or someone they know or care about has experienced gun violence in their lifetimes.¹SurveyUSA, “Results of SurveyUSA Market Research Study #26602,” October 24, 2022, https://bit.ly/3JJuwLY. See question 29. See also Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gun Violence Survivors in America,” February 1, 2023, https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-survivors-america/.
• 31 percent of Black people know or care about someone who was shot and wounded.²SurveyUSA, “Results of SurveyUSA Market Research Study #26602,” October 24, 2022, https://bit.ly/3JJuwLY. See question 24. See also Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gun Violence Survivors in America,” February 1, 2023, https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-survivors-america/.
• 1 in 3 Black people know or care about someone who was killed with a gun.³SurveyUSA, “Results of SurveyUSA Market Research Study #26602,” October 24, 2022, https://bit.ly/3JJuwLY. See question 25. See also Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gun Violence Survivors in America,” February 1, 2023, https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-survivors-america/.
• 57 percent of Black survivors experienced trauma from the incident.⁴SurveyUSA, “Results of SurveyUSA Market Research Study #26602,” October 24, 2022, https://bit.ly/3JJuwLY. See question 36. See also Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gun Violence Survivors in America,” February 1, 2023, https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-survivors-america/.
• Despite reporting high levels of trauma, Black communities reported less access to these services. In the first six months after the incident, 50 percent of Black survivors did not have access to these services, and access to services to cope with the long-term impact of trauma remained the same.⁵SurveyUSA, “Results of SurveyUSA Market Research Study #26602,” October 24, 2022, https://bit.ly/3JJuwLY. See question 38. See also Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Gun Violence Survivors in America,” February 1, 2023, https://everytownresearch.org/report/gun-violence-survivors-america/.

The Disproportionate Impact of Guns on the Black Community

The underinvestment in Black communities has created areas of concentrated disadvantages, housing instability, and poverty, where the public health crisis of gun violence continues to impact.

• Black communities are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. Each day on average, 37 Black people are killed with guns,⁶Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Black defined as non-Latinx origin. and more than 110 experience non-fatal injuries.⁷Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, WONDER Online Database, Underlying Cause of Death. A yearly average was developed using five years of the most recent available data: 2018 to 2021. Everytown For Gun Safety Support Fund, “A More Complete Picture: The Contours of Gun Injury in the United States,” December 2020
• Black Americans are more than 12 times more likely than white Americans to die by gun homicide.⁸Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Rates are age-adjusted. Black, white, American Indian/Alaska Native and Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander defined as non-Latinx origin. Latinx defined as all races of Latinx origin. Homicide includes shootings by police.
• 58% of all people killed in firearm homicides are Black.⁹Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Homicide includes shootings by police.
• Every year, police in America shoot and kill more than 1,100 people.¹⁰Everytown Research analysis of 2019 to 2023 Mapping Police Violence data (accessed February 21, 2024). Black Americans are disproportionately victimized by police violence and are nearly 3 times more likely to be shot and killed by police compared to their white peers.¹¹Everytown Research analysis of 2019 to 2023 Mapping Police Violence (accessed February 21, 2024) and population data from the US Census. National Violent Death Reporting System 2009-2012 (17 states participating) and also shows Black Americans killed by police at a rate 2.8 times higher than white Americans, see DeGue et al., 2016. CDC’s data on 2010-2014 deaths categorized as legal intervention shows a rate of police killing of Black males aged 10+ 2.8 times higher than white males 10+ years old, see Buehler, 2017.
• Furthermore, police shoot and kill unarmed Black Americans at a rate 2.5 times higher than unarmed white Americans.¹²Everytown Research analysis of Mapping Police Violence 2019-2023 (accessed February 21, 2024) & US Census datasets. Similarly, an analysis of NVDRS (DeGue et al., 2016) 2009-2012 shows 15% of Blacks killed by police were unarmed while 9% of whites killed by police were unarmed.
• 85 percent of Black adults believe that police violence against Black Americans is a major problem.¹³Samuel Bestvater et al. “#BlackLivesMatter Turns 10.” Pew Research Center, June 29, 2023. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2023/06/29/blacklivesmatter-turns-10/. Curbing this gun violence requires interrogation of America’s history of racism, reimagining the role of police, and implementing policies that reduce police gun violence.¹⁴Everytown for Gun Safety, “Gun Violence by Police,” November 18, 2022, https://www.everytown.org/issues/gun-violence-by-police/.

Children and Teens and Gun Violence

Firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S., but Black children and teens bear a disproportionate rate of victimization among their peers.

• Firearms are the leading cause of death for Black children and teens¹⁵Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death, Injury Mechanism & All Other Leading Causes, (accessed September 1, 2024). Data from 2023. Ages: 1–19. Black defined as non-Latinx origin. with more than 2,000 killed with guns each year—6 Black children and teens each day.¹⁶Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Ages: 0–19. Black defined as non-Latinx origin.
• Nearly 1,800 Black children and teens die by gun homicide each year—accounting for 5 out of the 6 Black children and teens that die by guns each day in the United States.¹⁷Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Ages: 0–19. Homicide includes shootings by police.
• Black children and teens are nearly 6 times more likely to die by guns¹⁸Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Ages: 0–19. Black, white, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander defined as non-Latinx origin. Latinx defined as all races of Latinx origin. and more than 18 times more likely to die by gun homicide than white children and teens of the same age.¹⁹Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Ages: 0–19. Black, white, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander defined as non-Latinx origin. Latinx includes all races of Latinx origin. Homicide includes shootings by police.
• Every 6 hours, a black boy or teenager dies by gun homicide in the United States.²⁰Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. WONDER Online Database, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death (accessed September 1, 2024). Average: 2019 to 2023. Males ages 0–19. Black defined as non-Latinx origin. Homicide includes shootings by police.
• Black children and teens are 13 times more likely than white children and teens of the same age to be hospitalized for a gun injury.²¹Everytown For Gun Safety Support Fund, “A More Complete Picture: The Contours of Gun Injury in the United States.” December 2020, Analysis includes children and teens aged 0 to 19, Black and white defined as non-Hispanic only.

Firearm Suicide

While Black Americans are less likely than most other peer groups to die by gun suicide, research has uncovered a worrying upward trend of firearm suicide death among Black youth.

• Research has shown an alarming increase in suicide deaths and attempts among young Black people: Black youth saw a 115 percent increase in firearm suicide from 2011 to 2020.²²Everytown analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death. Based on percentage change in crude rates: 2011 vs. 2020. Ages 10–24. AIAN, API, Black is defined as non-Latinx origin.
• More recently, Black youth saw the largest increase of any racial or ethnic group (66%) in firearm suicide rate from 2019-2022. During the same time, the white youth suicide rate increased by one percent.²³Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, National Vital Statistics System, Provisional Mortality 2019–2022 on CDC WONDER Online Database, accessed on September 15, 2023. The percentage change in crude rates: 2019 to 2022. Ages 10–24. Black and white is defined as non-Latinx origin.
• Black youth use guns more often in suicide than any other racial or ethnic group²⁴Everytown Research analysis of CDC, WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death. Crude rates: 2018 to 2022. Ages 10–24. Everytown defined Black as non-Latinx origin. and in 2022, for the first time since data has been available, the gun suicide rate among Black youth surpassed that of white youth.²⁵Everytown Research analysis of CDC, WONDER, Underlying Cause of Death. Crude rates: 1968 to 2022. Ages 10–24. Everytown defined Black and white as non-Latinx origin.
• Black women and girls have experienced a 128 percent increase in firearm suicide from 2019–2022.²⁶Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, National Vital Statistics System, Provisional Mortality 2019–2022 on CDC WONDER Online Database, accessed on September 15, 2023. The percentage change in crude rates: 2019 to 2022. Ages 10–24. Black and white is defined as non-Latinx origin.
• Studies on Black teens have shown that depression; traumatic experiences such as exposure to racism, discrimination, and neighborhood violence; and poor familial support are risk factors for suicide among this group.²⁷Congressional Black Caucus, Emergency Taskforce on Black Youth Suicide and Mental Health, Ring the Alarm: The Crisis of Black Youth Suicide in America, (December 17, 2019), https://bit.ly/2COX5Yy.
• Young Black people are less likely than their white peers to receive care for mental health-related traumas,²⁸US Department of Health and Human Services, African American Youth Suicide: Report to Congress, October 2020, https://bit.ly/3KogeNv. as they face a variety of barriers to accessing services.²⁹Michael A. Lindsey and Amaris Watson, “Barriers to Mental Health and Treatment among Urban Adolescents and Emerging Adult Males of Color,” in Strategies for Deconstructing Racism in the Health and Human Services, ed. Alma J. Carten, Alan B. Siskind, and Mary Pender Greene (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 191–208; Robert Motley and Andrae Banks, “Black Males, Trauma, and Mental Health Service Use: A Systematic Review,” Perspectives on Social Work: The Journal of the Doctoral Students of the University of Houston Graduate School of Social Work 14, no. 1 (2018): 4–19. 
• With schools serving as a primary provider of mental health services in many communities,³⁰Rachel N. Lipari et al., “Adolescent Mental Health Service Use and Reasons for Using Services in Specialty, Educational, and General Medical Settings,” in The CBHSQ Report (Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2013), http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK362074/. policies that have created the school-to-prison pipeline³¹Libby Nelson and Dara Lind, “The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Explained,” Vox, October 27, 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/2/24/8101289/school-discipline-race. prevent many Black youths from accessing the services they need. Young Black students who show symptoms of mental illness are disciplined and arrested more often than students of other racial/ethnic groups, rather than being given access to help.³²“Data Highlights on School Climate and Safety in Our Nation’s Public Schools,” 2015–2016 Civil Rights Data Collection: School Climate and Safety, US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, 2018, https://bit.ly/3aVDJgx; Amir Whitaker et al., “Cops and No Counselors: How the Lack of School Mental Health Staff is Harming Students,” (American Civil Liberties Union, March 2019), https://bit.ly/3xzz0fF.

Intimate Partner Violence and Gun Violence

The crisis of intimate partner violence is inextricably linked to the widespread and growing use of guns by abusers. This crisis is not experienced equally among Americans, with Black women experiencing the highest rates of intimate partner firearm homicide.

• Black women are four times more likely than white women to be fatally shot by an intimate partner.³³Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), 2021. Analysis includes homicides involving an intimate partner and a firearm, and compares the crude death rates for non-Latinx Black women (2.0 per 100,000) versus non-Latinx white women (0.5 per 100,000) (18 years and older).
• Younger Black women ages 18 to 34 years are at the greatest risk. They are seven times more likely to be shot and killed by an intimate partner than white women in the same age group.³⁴Everytown Research analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), 2021. Ages 18–34. Black and white defined as non-Latinx origin.
• Intimate partner violence involving guns threatens the life and reproductive health of women. Homicide is the leading cause of death among pregnant and postpartum women in the United States, an even stronger cause than pregnancy-related complications.³⁵Wallace, Maeve E. “Trends in pregnancy-associated homicide, United States, 2020.” American journal of public health 112, no. 9 (2022): 1333-1336.Wallace, Maeve, Veronica Gillispie-Bell, Kiara Cruz, Kelly Davis, and Dovile Vilda. “Homicide During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period in the United States, 2018–2019.” Obstetrics and gynecology 138, no. 5 (2021): 762. Black girls and young women (10-24 year-olds) are disproportionately impacted by pregnancy-associated homicides.³⁶Wallace, Maeve E. “Trends in pregnancy-associated homicide, United States, 2020.” American journal of public health 112, no. 9 (2022): 1333-1336.Wallace, Maeve, Veronica Gillispie-Bell, Kiara Cruz, Kelly Davis, and Dovile Vilda. “Homicide During Pregnancy and the Postpartum Period in the United States, 2018–2019.” Obstetrics and gynecology 138, no. 5 (2021): 762. This elevated risk associated with pregnancy may include racial inequity within reproductive health care services and education, social support services, and protective services.

LGBTQ+ Community and Gun Violence

Black LGBTQ+ individuals and communities are disproportionately victimized in almost all types of violent crime but are particularly vulnerable to gun violence.

• In 2023, there were 35 homicides of transgender or gender-expansive people. 80% of these were with a gun. Black trans women face the bulk of this violence: in 2023, 50% of gun homicides were of Black trans women.³⁷Everytown for Gun Safety, Transgender Homicide Tracker, 2023.
• Between 2017 and 2023, there were 263 homicides of transgender or gender-expansive people. Of those 263 people, 73% were killed with a gun.³⁸Everytown for Gun Safety, Transgender Homicide Tracker, seven-year count: 2017–2023.
• During the same time seven-year period, more than six in 10 gun homicides of transgender and gender-expansive people (63%) were of Black trans women.³⁹Everytown for Gun Safety, Transgender Homicide Tracker, seven-year count: 2017–2023.