July 14, 2026
Thom Carroll/PhillyVoice
Guns were involved in the deaths of about 45,000 people in 2024, according to a new report.
Gun violence deaths in the United States decreased from 2023 to 2024, but suicides involving firearms have reached a record high, according to new analysis.
Approximately 45,000 people died from guns in 2024, the fifth highest year on record and still way above pre-pandemic levels. That total equates to one gun death every 12 minutes, according to the report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions that analyzed the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As this report highlights, deadly gun violence is happening at a large rate affecting all populations,” said Rose Kim, assistant policy adviser at the the center and the study's lead author.
Overall, the rate of gun deaths dropped roughly 7% between 2023 and 2024, leading to 2,281 fewer deaths. A nearly 16% decline in homicides involving guns was a main driver of the decrease, with 2,563 fewer gun homicides in 2024 compared with 2023.
But suicide deaths involving guns continued to climb, reaching an all-time high of 27,593 in 2024. That means the rate of firearm suicides was one death every 19 minutes. Black women had the highest increase in suicide deaths involving guns, more than doubling between 2015 and 2024, according to the report.
The rate of gun deaths decreased 14% among young people, ages 1 to 17, from 2023 to 2024. But firearms remained the leading cause of death for youth in that age group for the fifth year in a row, with a total of 2,214 deaths.
“We can save lives and address this crisis through a comprehensive public health approach pushing for equitable, evidence-based policies and programs that address multiple forms of gun injury and death,” Cassandra Crifasi, co-director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions and senior author of the report, said in a news release.
Crifasi and her colleagues recommend that states institute community violence intervention programs focused on at-risk groups, more stringent laws for buying guns, stricter protection orders to help prevent guns deaths in situations involving domestic violence – and other evidence-based measures.
