For Release: Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Highest Rates in States with Higher Gun Ownership Rates, Weaker Gun Violence Prevention Laws
New VPC Analysis Released During National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month in September
Washington, DC — States with lower rates of gun ownership and stronger gun violence prevention laws have the lowest overall suicide rates in the nation according to a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis of 2021 data (the most recent year available) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics. Conversely, states with the highest suicide rates have higher gun ownership rates and weaker gun violence prevention laws.
The tables below list the states with the three lowest and three highest overall suicide rates in 2021 and include for each state its overall suicide rate, gun suicide rate, total number of suicides and gun suicides, percentage of suicides that involved a gun, and average household gun ownership rate. A similar table for all 50 states ranked by overall suicide rate is available at https://vpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2021-State-Overall-Suicide-Rates-ranked-by-rate.pdf.
The state with the lowest overall suicide rate in 2021 was New Jersey (7.1 suicides per 100,000 residents) with a gun suicide rate of 1.9 gun suicides per 100,000 residents. New York ranked second lowest (overall suicide rate of 7.9 suicides per 100,000 residents) with a gun suicide rate of 2.0 gun suicides per 100,000 residents. Massachusetts ranked third lowest (overall suicide rate of 8.0 suicides per 100,000 residents) with a gun suicide rate of 1.7 gun suicides per 100,000 residents. In each of these three states guns were used in less than 29 percent of the suicides reported that year and all had a household gun ownership rate below 20 percent. Compared to the three states with the highest suicide rates, each of these states has stronger gun violence prevention laws.
The state with the highest overall suicide rate in the nation in 2021 was Wyoming (32.3 suicides per 100,000 residents), which also had the highest gun suicide rate (22.8 gun suicides per 100,000 residents). Montana ranked second (32.0 suicides per 100,000 residents) and had the second highest gun suicide rate (21.1 gun suicides per 100,000 residents). Alaska ranked third (30.8 suicides per 100,000 residents) and had the third highest gun suicide rate (19.9 gun suicides per 100,000 residents). In each of these three states guns were used in 64 percent or more of the suicides reported that year and all had a household gun ownership rate above 64 percent. Compared to the states with the lowest suicide rates, each of these states has weak gun violence prevention laws.
In 2021 there were 48,183 suicides in the United States, of these 26,328 (55 percent) were firearm suicides. In 2020, there were 45,979 suicides in the United States, of which 24,292 (53 percent) were firearm suicides. In addition, gaps between states with the lowest and highest suicide rates widened further. In 2021 the overall suicide rate was 14.1 per 100,000 and the gun suicide rate was 7.5 per 100,000.
VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann states, “These findings starkly illustrate not only how gun suicide drives overall suicide rates, but also the strong and consistent link between higher rates of gun ownership and higher overall suicide rates. Most importantly, these findings show year after year that reducing access to firearms is a critical element in helping prevent suicide.”
The VPC defines states with “weaker” gun violence prevention laws as those that add little or nothing to federal law and have permissive laws governing the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public. States with “stronger” gun violence prevention laws were defined as those that add significant state regulation that is absent from federal law, such as restricting access to particularly hazardous and deadly types of firearms (for example, assault weapons), setting minimum safety standards for firearms and/or requiring a permit to purchase a firearm, and restricting the open and concealed carrying of firearms in public.
The age-adjusted rates published in this report were calculated by the National Center for Health Statistics. The rates are calculated by dividing the number of relevant suicide deaths in an age group by the population of that age group and multiplying the result by 100,000. This result is then weighted according to the U.S. standard population. More information about how rates are calculated can be found at: https://wonder.cdc.gov/wonder/help/ucd-expanded.html#Age-Adjusted%20Rates.
State gun ownership rates were obtained from the 2020 report published by the Rand Corporation “State-Level Estimates of Household Firearm Ownership” (available at: https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL354.html), which is the most recent comprehensive published data available on gun ownership.
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The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury. Follow the VPC on X/Twitter and Facebook.
