United States: In 2023, there was a new high in gun violence-related suicides in the U.S. according to record standards in the past three consecutive years.
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According to a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the year 2023, approximately 27,300 gun-related deaths (or 58 percent of all gun-related deaths) were suicides.
This translates to researchers saying that through the use of a gun, an American was taking his/her life every 19 minutes.
The suicides using firearms have increased in the face of falling firearm homicides, researchers said in their report, Gun Violence in the United States 2023: Examining the Gun Suicide Epidemic.
According to the lead author, Rose Kim, “Suicide is a growing crisis in the US, and guns are driving that crisis,” US News reported.
Overall, guns were involved in 46,728 deaths in the US in 2023. That’s one death every 11 minutes.
Firearm suicides reached record highs for the third straight year in 2023—accounting for 58% of all gun deaths in the U.S.
— Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions (@JHU_CGVS) June 26, 2025
Our new report breaks down the data and the urgent need for action.
🔗Read the news release: https://t.co/TJjaOFYYbe
Regarding firearms-related suicides, the report says that:
- When comparing the rural areas and large metropolitan areas, the rates were 63 percent in rural areas and 50 percent in the metropolitan areas.
- The Wyoming state had the highest rate of gun suicides, with nearly 10 times the lowest rate of gun suicides in Massachusetts.
- Men had 7 times more chances of killing themselves than women by use of a gun. The highest was the gun suicide rate among the men aged 70 and over.
- Suicide death by gun among the youth 10 to 19 years of age was multiplied by more than three times among blacks and more than twice among Hispanics in the coming decade.
Furthermore, as per the co-author Dr. Paul Nestadt, who is the medical director of the Bloomberg School’s Center for Suicide Prevention, “Unfortunately, guns are much more deadly than other suicide attempt methods,” US News reported.
To oppose it, researchers proposed the implementation of policies to deny a child access to guns, limit the possibility of buying guns within a short period, and find it easy to remove guns away from individuals at an increased risk of violence.
“Strategies that put time and space between guns and those at high risk of suicide are proven to save lives,” Nestadt added.
Researchers found that the total number of gun homicides dropped almost 9 percent since the previous year, from 19,651 to 17,927 in 2022 versus 2023.