An increase in suicides drove the total number of U.S. gun-related fatalities to the highest level ever recorded in 2017.
According to the Center for Disease Control’s Wide-randing Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database, 39,773 people died from gun-related violence in 2017. That’s up from the prior record of 39,595 deaths set in 1993.
Suicide was the primary reason for the increase. There were 23,854 gun-related suicides in 2017, up from 22,938 the prior year.
Suicide has been a significant and growing portion of U.S. gun deaths. They have accounted for about 60 percent of all gun deaths in the last few years.
But gun-related homicides also rose slightly, from 14,415 in 2016 to 14,542 in 2017, which is the highest yearly total seen since the 1990s.
2017 was the third year in a row that saw rising gun-related fatalities, and the third straight year in which gun-related deaths outpaced car accidents.
There were 12.2 gun deaths per 100,000 people last year, the highest rate seen since 1996, when it was 12.8 per 100,000.
In a statement, the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence said the data show gun violence is a “public health epidemic.”
“Gun violence is a public health epidemic that requires a public health solution, which is why we must immediately enact and implement evidence-based interventions, like permit-to-purchase policies and extreme risk laws,” said director Adelyn Allchin.
Former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who founded the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said the new CDC figures show why so many gun-control candidates were elected in the 2018 midterm elections.
“It’s unacceptable that the number of deaths from shootings keeps escalating while Washington D.C. refuses to even debate policies we know would help save lives,” Giffords said in a statement. “But activism leads to change and come January, more gun safety champions will be joining Congress and making this public health problem a priority.”
