Gun Violence Facts

Gun violence kills about 30,000 Americans each year and injures more than twice as many.

Examine the numbers for yourself at the Center for Disease Control’s website. The WISQARS (Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System) is an easy-to-use, interactive database system that provides customized reports of injury-related data. You can research data by year(s), manner of injury, cause of injury, state or region, race, sex, and age.

The database provides the following information:

Year	Gun deaths	Non-fatal gunshot injuries	Age-Adjusted Death Rate
2000	28,663	75,685	NA
2001	29,573	63,012	10.31
2002	30,242	58,841	10.43
2003	30,136	65,834	10.29
2004	29,569	64,389	9.99
2005	30,694	69,825	10.27
2006	30,896	71,417	10.22
2007	31,224	69,863	10.24
2008	31,593	78,622	10.23
2009	31,347	66,769	10.05
2010	31,672	73,505	10.07
2011	32,351	78,883	10.17
2012	33,563	81,396	10.45
2013	33,636	84,258	10.38
2014	33,599	81,034	10.27
2015	36,252		11.04
2016	38,658		11.73
2017	39,773		11.98
2018	39,740		11.87
2019	39,707		11.83
2020	45,222		13.47
2021	48,830		14.54
2022	48,204		14.21

These numbers show that gun violence is an enormous public health problem in this country.

Data from the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) show that gun violence is also a serious problem in Oregon.

Year	Total gun deaths	Gun suicides	Gun homicdes
2000	378	303 (80%)	75
2001	360	287 (80%)	73
2002	376	291 (77%)	85
2003	393	329 (84%)	64
2004	383	300 (78%)	83
2005	400	320 (80%)	80
2006	381	307 (81%)	74
2007	387	327 (84%)	60
2008	387	324 (84%)	63
2009	417	341 (83%)	72
2010	458	376 (81%)	82
2011	417	337 (81%)	80
2012	443	366 (83%)	76
2013	461	388 (84%)	73
2014	497	422 (85%)	75
2015	486	374 (77%)	112
2016	510	412 (81%)	98
2017	529	439 (83%)	90
2018	519	427 (82%)	92
2019	566	466 (82%)	100
2020	593	455 (77%)	138
2021	670	504 (75%)	166
2022	656	477 (73%)	179
2023	NA	NA	153

The 2000 to 2004 data are set forth in the Oregon Vital Statistics Annual Report for the year specified, in volume 2, section 6, table 6-30 (in the 2000 report, table 6-29). Click here to view the reports. The 2005 to 2014 data are from Center for Disease Control: Injury and Prevention Control: Data and Statistics (WISQARS) for Oregon. The data from 2015 to 2022 are from the Oregon Health Authority. Homicide data from 2023 is from Gun Violence Archive. Suicide data for 2023 is not yet available.

Oregon State Links

Oregon Department of Human Services/Injury and Violence Prevention Program
The Dougy Center, Grief Support for Chidlren and Teens
Multnomah County Family Violence Coordinating Council

National Links

Note: Links to these sites are provided as an educational service by Ceasefire Oregon and the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation, but are neither part of nor endorsed by Ceasefire Oregon or the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation. Ceasefire Oregon and the Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation have no control over the content or availability of these sites.

COEF’s Presentations to the Oregon Public Health Association Conference

2019: Ceasefire Oregon Education Foundation’s presentation to Oregon Public Health Association, “Educating Healthcare Providers and the Public About the Link Between Firearm Ownership and Suicide.”

The link between suicide and gun ownership is well established.
Miller, Azrael, et al, from the Harvard School of Public Health conducted a
survey of American households in 2002. In states where guns were prevalent—as in Wyoming, where 63 percent of household reported owning guns—rates of suicide were higher. The inverse was also true: where gun ownership was less common, suicide rates were also lower.

Tragically, only 1 of 3 health care practitioners agreed that having a household firearm increases suicide risk. Among health care practitioners who own firearms, 11.8% agreed with this statement.

Providing accurate information about the increased risk of suicide among gun owners is vital to reducing gun death in Oregon, where 82% of all gunshot death is suicide.