Gun Violence Continues to Drop

In 2024, the US saw record declines in gun violence, with the gun death rate falling at its highest percentage since 1995. 

A new release of final data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 2024 gun deaths shows the most substantial signs of progress in addressing our nation’s gun violence epidemic in decades. The national gun death rate fell 7% from 2023 to 2024, resulting in 2,281 fewer lives lost. This marks the largest decline in the total gun death rate since 1995. 

While the US saw modest declines in gun violence in 2022 and 2023, this decrease is especially welcome after the surges in gun violence this nation experienced between 2015 and 2021. Importantly, with these decreases, the US saw a lower number of gun deaths than it has since 2020. However, gun deaths overall still remained higher than 2019 levels. 

The decline in gun deaths overall was largely driven by a substantial decrease in gun homicides, with the gun homicide rate falling 16% from 2023 to 2024. Homicide declines were felt across the country, and resulted in 2,563 fewer lives being lost. 

Although the news of falling gun violence is encouraging, the data is not all good news. 44,447 Americans lost their lives to gun violence in 2024, the fifth-highest number of gun deaths on record. That represents one person dying from gun violence every 12 minutes. Additionally, the number of gun suicides, which represented 57% of all gun deaths in 2024, increased by nearly 300 deaths. As a result of this increase, gun suicides reached their highest level on record. In total, 27,593 Americans lost their lives to gun suicide in 2024. 

Gun violence also continued to be the leading cause of death for American children ages one to 17 for the fifth year in a row. One out of every 16 children under 18 who died in 2024 was killed by a gun. And substantial racial disparities in gun violence continued to persist: In 2024, Black Americans were 12 times more likely to be killed in gun homicides than white Americans. 

The CDC’s mortality data, which is based on data compiled from death certificates, is the most complete and accurate source for information on gun deaths in America. These data not only provide insight on the past, but also help us chart a course forward for understanding how we can build on progress. Understanding the different and disparate impacts of gun violence on various geographic and demographic communities can help us better design policies and programs to effectively combat this crisis. 

However, this data alone is not sufficient. These numbers merely provide insight into what has changed about gun violence in America—not why it changed. There are several theories about the drivers of these declines in gun homicides, from the waning of the pandemic to increased investments in local communities, including dedicated funding for community violence intervention programs. It is critical that we invest in future research to explore these factors further and provide more insight into what propelled this progress.  

Below, we dive into the specific trends we’re seeing across different types of gun violence.

Our nation’s sharp decrease in gun homicides fueled the reduction in the overall gun death rate. 15,364 people were killed in gun homicides in 2024—down from 20,958 people in 2021. 

Gun homicides declined in nearly every corner of the US, though not all states have returned to pre-2020 homicide levels. 

Guns continue to drive our nation’s homicide crisis, but the share of homicides committed with guns is down slightly. 

Furthermore, decreases in gun violence were observed across nearly all demographic groups. 

While the US saw great progress reducing homicides in 2024, the number of gun suicides continued to rise. In 2024, gun suicide claimed the lives of 27,593 Americans. This number represents the highest number of gun suicides on record. In fact, this is the fourth year in a row that the US has set a new record high number of gun suicides. 

Importantly, the gun suicide rate did decrease slightly, because the increase in suicide deaths was proportionally smaller than the increase in the total US population. The gun suicide was 0.8% lower in 2024 compared to 2023. 

The 2024 data indicates that firearms overwhelmingly fuel our nation’s suicide crisis. 

There was substantial geographic variability in trends in gun suicide rates from 2023 to 2024. 

Overall, gun suicides fell for most age groups and most racial groups. However, suicide rates rose sharply for some young people of color. 

In 2024, 450 people were killed in unintentional shootings, slightly down from 463 deaths in 2023. In fact, 2024 saw the lowest number of unintentional gun deaths on record, and the unintentional gun death rate is 48% percent lower in 2024 than 20 years earlier in 2005. 

Children continue to be disproportionately impacted by unintentional gun violence. 

The new CDC data shows that law enforcement shot and killed 636 people in 2024—an increase from 604 in 2023. However, the CDC’s accounting of police shootings has been shown to be unreliable and incomplete due to undercounting and misclassification. Therefore, using CDC data to understand fatal police shootings and other police violence distorts the complete picture of this problem. 

Mapping Police Violence, an independent organization that tracks incidents of fatal police violence across the country, found that law enforcement shot and killed 1,210 people in 2024, more than double the CDC’s number. In the overwhelming majority of these deaths—95%—people killed by police were killed with guns. 

This new data is a strong signal that our nation’s gun violence crisis is declining, and preliminary indications suggest that the decreases in gun homicides continued to grow in 2025. This progress is meaningful: It means that 2,281 people survived and that 2,281 families did not have to mourn the loss of a loved one.