U.S. Gun-Related Deaths Declined Slightly in 2024, Though 1 Still Occurred Every 12 Minutes on Average

U.S. gun deaths declined in 2024, but a person still died from a gun-related cause every 12 minutes in the United States, according to new research released this week.

The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Gun Violence Solutions assessed that there were 44,447 deaths in the United States related to firearms in 2024, a decline of 2,281 deaths compared to 2023.

The decline is a reflection of a gun-related homicide rate that has dropped for the third straight year. The rate spiked during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching an apex in 2021. While it has fallen since then, the gun-related homicide rate remains above 2019 levels.

Gun-related suicide is another story. The rate of suicides involving firearms declined slightly, but that is due to population growth: with 27,593 firearms-related suicide deaths, 2024 set another all-time high.

A gun was used in 76 percent of all homicides and 57 percent of all suicides in 2024.

Gunshots were the leading cause of death for people ages one to 17, taking the lives of 2,214 young people, including 119 one- to four-year-olds. It’s the fifth consecutive year that more young people died from gunshots than car accidents.

U.S. states have different laws regulating firearms. In general, states with more restrictive gun laws have lower firearms death rates than states with less restrictive gun laws. The five states with the highest gun-related death rates were Mississippi, New Mexico, Alaska, Wyoming, and Alabama. The states with the lowest gun-related death rates were Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island.

The report notes that the United States has far fewer firearms restrictions than other high-income countries, which is driving factor in the United States’ higher homicide rates.

“The U.S. has similar levels of violent assault,” according to the report. “However, because the U.S. has more guns and weaker gun laws, violent assaults are far more often deadly, and the homicide rate in the U.S. is 7.5 times higher than in its peer countries.”

Similarly, access to firearms means suicide attempts are much more likely to end in death.

“While guns are only used in 5 percent of suicide attempts, they result in more than half of all suicides,” the report said.

The Center for Gun Violence Solutions advocates for several gun violence solutions, including:

• Creating regulations that call for guns to be unloaded and locked up when not in use to reduce gun-related injury and death rates of young people.
  
  
• Creating regulations that require permits for the carrying of firearms in public areas to reduce overall gun-related fatalities.
  
  
• Investing in community violence intervention programs, which are designed to intervene in communities where systemic racism and disinvestment lead to perpetuated cycles of violence.
  
  
• Implementing red flag laws and similar laws designed to remove access to firearms from people with an elevated risk for violence or self-harm.

In a 2024 ASIS Security Issues Research report, Active Assailant Preparedness, 21 percent of security professionals report that in the past five years, someone has brandished a firearm in their workplace.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings on two cases related to firearms. In Wolford v. Lopez, the court struck down a Hawaii law that restricted conceal and carry rights on private property—such as stores or places of business—unless the private property owner gave express permission. In the other, a unanimous court ruled in United States v. Hemani that moderate marijuana use was not grounds for limiting gun ownership on the basis of restricting consumers of controlled substances from owning guns.

However, other recent Supreme Court decisions have been more of a mixed bag. The Court ruled in United States v. Rahimi to uphold red flag laws in 2024 but with Garland v. Cargill it ruled that bump stocks, which allow for the rapid firing of semiautomatic rifles, do not transform the firearm into an automatic weapon and cannot be banned. In 2025 in Bondi v. Vanderstok, the Court held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives could regulate the sale of weapon parts kits.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has shifted the U.S. federal government's approach to gun violence away from a public-health oriented approach to a law-and-order approach. The New York Times wrote that this change in tactics is aimed at cutting illegal use of firearms while removing regulations related to firearms in the United States.