Gun Violence Among Black Americans: A Pandemic of Violence

Key Points: Black Americans are twice as likely to be murdered with firearms than any other race. Furthermore, 88% of black American gun deaths are attributed to other black Americans.

Related Studies: Mass Shootings by Shooter's Race | Gun Deaths in America | Adolescent Firearm Related Death Statistics | Gun Death Statistics by Caliber

This report was compiled using reputable sources to ensure the most accurate information. All sources are listed HERE.

How Many Gun Violence Incidents Affect Black Americans Each Year?

In 2023, 22,828 people were murdered in the U.S. Of those, 54% were black Americans. ¹ There were 17,926 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. during the same year. Black Americans accounted for 59% of victims in those incidents (10,563).

Black Americans tend to commit suicide less frequently than Americans of other races. Of the 49,315 suicides committed in the U.S. in 2023, just over half involved a firearm. Black Americans died by firearm-related suicide at a rate of 5.3 per 100,000: nearly half that of white Americans at 9.5 per 100,000.

Black Americans succumb to firearm-related accidents more frequently than other races: 0.3 per 100,000, compared to 0.1 per 100,000 for white Americans.

How Many Black Americans Die From Guns Each Year?

In 2023, 46,727 Americans died from gunshot wounds (including suicide, unintentional injuries, etc.). Black Americans accounted for 13,350 of those deaths. White Americans accounted for 31,385.

Black Americans are underrepresented in these data due to their smaller population size. For better context, 29.4 out of 100,000 black Americans died from gunshots that year. Only 12.5 out of 100,000 white Americans did the same, meaning. In other words, black Americans are around 2.35 times more likely to perish from firearm-related causes than white Americans. ¹

Between 2018 and 2023, black Americans died from gunshot wounds at a rate of 29 per 100,000, significantly higher than 12 per 100,000 for white and Hispanic Americans. ³

Black Americans Gun Death Trends 1968-2023

Since 1968, black Americans have died from firearm-related causes at a rate of at least 20 people per 100,000. White Americans have died at a rate of at least 8 people per 100,000 during this same time period.

Black Americans died at higher gun-death rates than other races in the 1980s and 1990s (30+ people per 100,000). These rates declined during the subsequent two decades.

The lowest rate of firearm-related deaths among black Americans occurred in 2014: 18.4 people per 100,000. The rate spiked to 34 per 100,000 in 2020, peaking at 36 per 100,000 the following year.

What Is the Number of Black Americans Killed by Guns Annually?

In 2023, firearm-related deaths among black Americans included:

• 129 unintentional incidents
• 2,385 suicides
• 10,563 homicides
• 139 incidents related to legal intervention/operations of war
• 134 undetermined

Black Americans have died at higher rates than any other race dating back to 1999. Black Americans died at twice the rate of any other race during the first two decades of the 21st century.

Black Americans suffered the most in the spike in firearm-related deaths after 2020. In 2020, firearm-related deaths of black Americans increased by 37%, whereas the rate for white Americans rose by only 4%.

What Is the Impact of Gun Violence on Black Americans by Age Range?

At 53.5 per 100,000, black Americans between the ages of 15 and 34 comprise the highest per capita rate of homicide victims. This demographic represents only 3% of the U.S. population but accounted for 35% of the nation's homicide victims in 2023. ¹

Non-Hispanic white Americans in the same age group are murdered with a firearm at a rate of 2.6 per 100,000. For Native Americans, the rate is 18 per 100,000; for Hispanic Americans, it is 10.4 per 100,000.

In 2023, black children between the ages of 5 and 14 died from firearm-related homicide at a rate of 3.5 per 100,000 – almost nine times higher than the rate for white children (0.4 per 100,000).

Black-on-Black Gun Deaths and Murders Per Year

Note: This section covers victims of homicide and alleged offenders, the latter of whom are innocent until proven guilty. These data do not consider multiple factors related to criminality and homicide, such as location, socioeconomic status, and environmental and societal factors.

In 2019, 89% of black American homicides were perpetrated by other black Americans. Similarly, 79% of white victims were murdered by other white people. ⁴

According to the FBI, there were 2,510 black American homicide offenders in 2021. There were 1,903 white homicide offenders in comparison. When we compare population sizes, we see that black Americans are arrested for homicides at a rate of 6.5 per 100,000. The second-highest homicide offenders, white Americans, are arrested at a rate of 0.8 per 100,000. ²

Homicide offenders in the United States are more likely to murder others within their own race, although black Americans are arrested for murdering victims of different races more often.

The FBI's Crime Data Explorer database reports 73,635 black homicides and 84,453 black offenders between 1990 and 2023. There were 62,282 white homicide victims and 59,602 white offenders during the same timespan. ²

How Does Gun Death Risk Differ Between Black and White Americans?

In 2023, black Americans were 1.6 times more likely to become victims of firearm-related homicide than white Americans.

Of the 46,728 gunshot-related deaths in 2023, 29% were black Americans, and 61% were white Americans. However, 59% of firearm-related homicide victims were black, whereas 37% were white.

Black men are 6.9 times more likely to die from firearm-related causes than black women, and 1.8 times more likely than white men. Interestingly, white women are 1.1 times more likely to die in a firearm-related homicide than black women.

How Prevalent is Gun-Related Suicide Among Black Americans?

Although black Americans are more likely to succumb to firearm-related homicides, white Americans are 10 times more likely to die of firearm-related suicide. In 2023, 23,825 white Americans committed suicide with a firearm, compared to 2,385 black Americans.

When we compare population sizes, black Americans die from firearm-related suicide at a rate of 5.3 per 100,000, while white Americans die at a rate of 9.5 per 100,000. In 2023, only 9% of all firearm suicides ended the lives of black Americans.

Racial Disparities and Guns

This article illustrates America’s racial disparities in violence statistics. Black Americans are impacted by violence, including firearm-related violence, more than any other demographic. The disparity became especially apparent during the 1970s and continues to this day.

Sources

1. CDC Wonder Provisional Reports
2. FBI Crime Data Explorer
3. CDC Wonder Underlying Cause of Death
4. 2019 FBI UCR