U.S. Gun Suicides Continue Record Rise

Key TakeawaysGun-related U.S. suicides reached record highs for the third straight year in 2023About 58% of all gun deaths were suicidesAn American killed themselves with a gun every 19 minutes.FRIDAY, June 27, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Gun-related suicides in the U.S. reached record highs for the third straight year in 2023, a new report on gun violence says.About 27,300 gun-related deaths — 58% of all gun deaths — were suicides in 2023, according to research from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.That means an American used a gun to kill themselves every 19 minutes, researchers said.The increase in gun-related suicides has occurred even as firearm homicides have declined, researchers noted in their report, Gun Violence in the United States 2023: Examining the Gun Suicide Epidemic.“Suicide is a growing crisis in the U.S. and guns are driving that crisis,” lead author Rose Kim said in a news release. She’s an assistant policy advisor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.Overall, guns were involved in 46,728 deaths in the U.S. in 2023. That’s one death every 11 minutes.Regarding firearms-related suicides, the report says that:Rates were higher in rural regions (63%) than in large metropolitan areas (50%).The state with the highest gun suicide rate, Wyoming, had about 10 times the gun suicide rate of Massachusetts, which had the lowest.Men were 7 times more likely than women to kill themselves with a gun.The gun suicide rate among men 70 and older was by far the highest.The firearm suicide rate among Black youth 10 to 19 more than tripled and among Hispanic youth more than doubled during the past decade.“Unfortunately, guns are much more deadly than other suicide attempt methods,” co-author Dr. Paul Nestadt, medical director of the Bloomberg School’s Center for Suicide Prevention, said in a news release.To combat this, researchers recommended the adoption of policies to prevent children’s access to guns, restrict the ability to purchase guns quickly, and make it easier to take firearms away from people at a higher risk for violence.“Strategies that put time and space between guns and those at high risk of suicide are proven to save lives,” Nestadt said.Total gun homicides fell nearly 9% from the year before, from 19,651 to 17,927 between 2022 and 2023, researchers found.Despite this, 2023 gun homicides represented the fifth-highest total on record, they noted.For the fourth year in a row, guns were the leading cause of death among young people ages 1 to 17, with 2,566 total deaths in 2023, researchers found.If you or a loved one is experiencing a suicidal crisis or emotional distress call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.More informationThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on firearm injuries and deaths.SOURCE: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, news release, June 26, 2025 .What This Means For YouFriends and family of people at risk for suicide should try to restrict their access to firearms..Sign up for our weekly HealthDay newsletter