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Gun Deaths by Intent

Source: CDC, WONDER, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death. Five-year average: 2019–2023, https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/saved/D176/D408F173. Note: Research indicates that shootings by police are undercounted in CDC datasets, as incidents are often misclassified as homicides (Colin Loftin et al., “Underreporting of Justifiable Homicides Committed by Police Officers in the United States, 1976–1998,” American Journal of Public Health 93, no. 7 (July 1, 2003): 1117–21, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.93.7.1117; Catherine Barber et al., “Homicides by Police: Comparing Counts From the National Violent Death Reporting System, Vital Statistics, and Supplementary Homicide Reports,” American Journal of Public Health 106, no. 5 (May 2016): 922–27, https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2016.303074). Mapping Police Violence’s database is widely cited and estimates that nearly 1,100 people are fatally shot by police in an average year—roughly twice as many as recorded by the CDC (Everytown Research analysis of 2019 to 2023 Mapping Police Violence data (accessed February 21, 2024)).

Last updated: 11.7.2024

Did you know?

Every day, 125 people in the United States are killed with guns, twice as many are shot and wounded, and countless others are impacted by acts of gun violence.

Everytown Research analysis of CDC, WONDER, Provisional Mortality Statistics, Multiple Cause of Death, 2019–2023; Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project nonfatal firearm injury data, 2020; and SurveyUSA, Market Research Study #26602, 2022.

Last updated: 11.8.2024