11.4.2022
Last Updated: 12.18.2023
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Summary
In 2022, an estimated 16,800 people died by gun homicide across the US.1Federal Bureau of Investigation, UCR Summary of Crime in the Nation, 2022. (Washington, DC, 2023), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/home. This report provides trends on “fatal shootings,” which include murders and non-negligent manslaughters involving a firearm.This number—while still unacceptably high—represents a 5.7 percent rate decrease from 2021, and brings the country back to pre-pandemic trends.2While the FBI only began calculating national estimates for fatal shootings in 2021, they estimated an overall murder rate of 6.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019 and an overall murder rate of 6.3 per 100,000 people in 2022. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer, Trend of Homicide from 2012 to 2022. (Washington, DC, 2023), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/explorer/crime/crime-trend.
But not everyone felt these declines equally. From 2021 to 2022, gun homicide rates dropped 7.8 percent among adults, but rose 11.1 percent in children and teens.3Federal Bureau of Investigation, UCR Summary of Crime in the Nation, 2022. (Washington, DC, 2023), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/home. This report uses the term “juveniles” in place of “children and teens,” and includes anyone less than 18 years old. In 2022, Black Americans died by gun homicides at a rate 9.9 times higher than white Americans, and Native American peoples’ rate was 1.45 times higher than white Americans.4 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Table 21: National Fatal Gun Violence — Year-Over-Year trend: Rate Per 100,000 Inhabitants. (Washington, DC, 2023), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/home. And as always, gun homicides continued to cluster in America’s cities.
The FBI is the leading source of city gun violence data across the country, covering over 94 percent of the US population in 2022.5Federal Bureau of Investigation, UCR Summary of Crime in the Nation, 2022. (Washington, DC, 2023), https://cde.ucr.cjis.gov/LATEST/webapp/#/pages/home. Everytown’s City Gun Homicide dashboard allows users to explore gun homicide trends across over 500 cities with populations of 65,000+ that reported data to the FBI from 2018 to 2022.
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