Charting gun violence in the United States

The United States is on pace to have its deadliest year for mass shootings, while cases of homicide and suicide in which a gun is used have also increased to record highs in recent years.

Here are four charts that show the state of gun violence in the United States.

Mass shooting deaths

In what is perhaps the starkest look at the situation, the cumulative number of people who died in mass shootings in January of this year was already on pace to exceed the total deaths in each of the previous five years. There were 89 victims who died in the first month of this year — more than double the 41 who died in the same period last year.

The year started with a string of high-profile incidents, including the Monterey Park shooting in which 11 people were killed and another nine were injured.

It's important to note that different organizations define mass shooting differently. For example, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines a mass shooting as "one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area." The Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit group dedicated to logging incidents, defines a mass shooting as "four or more people shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter." This latter definition is in line with how CBC defines a mass shooting.

Homicides and suicides

While garnering a disproportionate amount of media attention, mass shootings only account for a fraction of gun-related injuries and deaths. According to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were more than 48,000 gun deaths in the U.S. in 2021, more than half of which were categorized as suicide (26,328), compared to 20,958 documented homicides.

There were 665 victims killed in mass shootings that year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Both homicides and suicides increased significantly between 2019 and 2021 as the U.S., like other nations, grappled with an ongoing mental health crisis.

A smaller number of gun fatalities were accidental, or their origins could not be determined.

How states compare

Looking at state-level data, southern states, including Mississippi and Louisiana, were among those with the highest rates of firearm-related deaths in 2021. A recent report by Everytown for Gun Safety found a clear pattern that states with strong gun laws see less gun violence.

How countries compare

It's no secret that the U.S. is an outlier among democracies and advanced economies when it comes to gun violence. In 2019, the United Kingdom recorded 27 gun-related deaths, Australia saw 45, Canada saw 170 and the U.S. saw 13,001, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. That year it ranked third, behind Mexico and Brazil. Given its large population, it ranks significantly lower when looking at the death rate per 100,000 people.

A bipartisan gun safety package was signed into law in 2022 in the U.S., ending decades of legislative inertia around gun control, but deep cultural and political divisions remain.

Further, research showed millions of Americans became new gun owners between 2019 and 2021, and growing distrust is turning honest mistakes, like ringing the wrong doorbell, into deadly altercations.