Facts and Statistics

School Shootings

  • Guns used in about 68% of school shootings were taken from the home of the shooter or their relative. [24]

  • The Washington Post reports that more than 278,000 students have experienced gun violence at school since the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. [26]

  • Exposure to a school shooting leads to declines in health and well-being, worse health-related behaviors and worse education and labor market outcomes. [27]

Read more: Schools and Guns- What you can do

Gun Storage and Child Access

  • An estimated 4.6 million American children live in a home where at least one gun is kept loaded and unlocked. [28]

  • 39% of parents wrongly believe children don’t know where a gun is stored. [29]

  • Guns killed more preschoolers than law enforcement officers in the line of duty. In 2019, 86 children under 5 were killed with guns compared with 51 law enforcement officers in the line of duty. [10]

  • In 2020, there were at least 369 unintended shootings by children in the United States. These shootings caused 142 deaths and 242 injuries. [30]

    In fact, firearm deaths occur at a rate more than 5 times higher than drownings.

  • More than one in every four of these shootings are by kids age 5 and younger. One in every four of the victims are also 5 and younger. [34]

  • Unintentional gunshot deaths by children handling a gun jumped 31% during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to a year earlier. [32]

Read More: Ask- Are there Guns Where My Child Plays

Suicide

  • Nearly two-thirds of all gun deaths in the US are suicides, accounting for an average of 66 deaths a day. [11]

  • Access to a firearm triples one’s risk of death by suicide. This elevated risk applies not only to the gun owner but to everyone in the household. [12]

  • For children and teens, suicide rates are four times higher for kids who live in homes with guns. [13]

  • In the past decade, 40% of the suicides committed by kids and teens involved guns. [14]

  • 9 out of 10 of these suicides were with guns that the victims accessed at their own homes or from a relative's home. [15]

  • Over the past decade, the firearm suicide rate among children and teens has increased by 59%. [16]

  • Most people who attempt suicide do not die—unless they use a gun. Across all suicide attempts not involving a firearm, 4% result in death. But for gun suicide, those statistics are flipped: Approximately 90% of gun suicide attempts end in death. [17]

  • First-time gun owners are at risk for suicide with men 8 times as likely to kill themselves by gunshot compared to non-owners. Women were 35 times as likely. [18]

Read more: What is safe storage?

Gun Violence and Women

  • The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation increases the risk of homicides against women by 500%. [19]

  • From 2006 to 2015, 36% of murders of young women between the ages of 15 and 29 were committed by an intimate partner or family member, and 54% of those murders were committed with a gun. [20]

  • From 2006 to 2015, out of the more than 1,550 young women killed with a gun in domestic violence situations, 65% were murdered by a dating partner. [21]

  • Every MONTH, an average of 57 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner. [22]

  • 4.5 million women have reported being threatened with a gun by an intimate partner. [23]

Read More: Gun in the Home Doesn't Make Women Safer

Thanks to Project Unloaded for gathering these facts