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    Data Tool

    Calculate the Economic Cost of Gun Violence

    8.12.2021

    Last Updated: 2.9.2023

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      Introduction

      Without a doubt, the human cost of gun violence is the most devastating. But examining the economic consequences of gun violence is paramount to understanding just how extensive and expensive this crisis is. In July 2022, Everytown updated its study on the economic cost of gun violence in the United States that found that we are paying $557 billion for the aftermath of gun violence per year. Year after year. This $557 billion problem includes three categories of costs: immediate costs, such as hospital treatment, ambulances, and the police response; subsequent costs, such as long-term physical and mental health care, institutional care, forgone earnings from disability or death, and criminal justice costs; and quality-of-life costs for pain and suffering over a victim’s lifespan.

      Do you want to know…

      • how much gun violence over the last weekend cost?
      • the economic cost of the most recent mass shooting?
      • how much gun violence costs taxpayers in your city?

      Economic Cost Calculator

      Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, “Economic Cost of Gun Violence Calculator Tool,” 2022.

      Five Easy Steps for the Cost Calculator

      To calculate the cost of gun violence in communities you care about, including overall costs to society and the cost to taxpayers: 

      1. Select your state (to adjust for cost-of-living differences)
      2. Select the type of shooting (unintentional, mass shooting, assault or homicide, etc.).
      3. Enter the number of people shot and killed (enter 0 if all victims survived).
      4. Enter the number of people shot and wounded (enter 0 if there were no surviving victims or if this information is not available).
      5. For details on each category included in the calculations, select the tab at the top for Cost Breakdown or Cost to Taxpayers.

      How much is gun violence costing your state?

      To gain more insights on state-level costs of gun violence, check out EveryStat for Gun Safety. EveryStat also has gun violence data by state, congressional district, county, race and ethnicity, and gender.

      If you have any trouble accessing the calculator or for more detailed results for your city, please contact: [email protected].

      This is a tool to assist in calculating the cost of gun violence in the United States based upon unit costs per gun injury and death. Any calculations are subject to the validity of the inputted data. For detailed methods see our methodological note.

      Everytown Research & Policy is a program of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, an independent, non-partisan organization dedicated to understanding and reducing gun violence. Everytown Research & Policy works to do so by conducting methodologically rigorous research, supporting evidence-based policies, and communicating this knowledge to the American public.

      The Latest

      Did you know?

      Every day, more than 120 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, Underlying Cause of Death, 2018–2022; Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) nonfatal firearm injury data, 2020; and SurveyUSA Market Research Study #26602, 2022.

      Last updated: 5.7.2024