By the way, Glocks are among the most popular handguns in police departments, because they are lightweight thanks to the polymer frame. The 21-year-old man who murdered more than 20 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 targeted Latinos and supported many of the same racist theories as Gendron. He ordered his AK-47 clone online from Romania and then picked up the gun and ammunition from a gun store in Dallas after passing the required background checks. Fact: Each of the guns was purchased either through an intermediary or by someone who knew they were going to be purchased from underage buyers. In all cases, there was targeted criminal activity and the actors knew they were breaking the law. Fact: Only 7.3% of the weapons prosecuted were found by the person who purchased the weapon first. 8 For the number and rate of firearm deaths over time, we relied on mortality statistics from the CDC`s WONDER database, covering three distinct time periods: 1968 to 1978, 1979 to 1998, and 1999 to 2020. While these statistics are broadly comparable for the entire 1968-2020 period, homicides and firearm-related suicides between 1968 and 1978 are classified by the CDC as using firearms and explosives; Those between 1979 and 2020 are classified as firearms only. Similarly, between 1968 and 1978, firearm deaths involving law enforcement agencies excluded those caused by “war operations”; those between 1979 and 2020 include this category, which refers to firearm-related deaths among military or civilian personnel due to war or civil insurrection in the United States. All CDC death estimates in this analysis are adjusted for age differences over time.
Among victims of firearm-related violent crime who were injured or died, the majority (71%) of injuries were caused by a firearm. Among victims who did not have a firearm, the most common cause of injury or death was physical abuse (73% of injured victims). Even among victims of gun crime who sustained a minor injury that did not require medical attention, the majority (61%) were caused by a firearm. Of the 8% of victims who sustained a serious injury requiring medical attention, 85% suffered firearm-related injuries. Almost all deaths (99%) in firearm-related violent crime were caused by a firearm. As in other years, rates of firearm-related violent crime in 2020 were highest among young males aged 18 to 24 (110 accused per 100,000 population) and male youth aged 12 to 17 (75 per 100,000) compared to older males (29 per 100,000 population aged 25 and older). Rates for females followed the same trend, but were significantly lower in all age groups (Table 14). In total, there were 5 accused per 100,000 females, compared to 36 male accused per 100,000 males of all ages.
Fact: Even for crimes where the perpetrator possessed a firearm at the time of the crime, 83% did not use or threaten to use the weapon. 24 While it is difficult to make general generalizations, Mr. Densley and his partner Jillian Peterson have found several role models among gunmen during recent mass shootings. Many have clean criminal records and can legally purchase firearms. If they are minors or young adults, they often receive guns as gifts from their parents – or borrow or steal guns from their homes. No expert who spoke to FiveThirtyEight gave a figure on the different ways the guns ended up on the streets, but they did give a breakdown of the main categories. Two of the biggest are straw purchases and theft – although ghost guns, the aftermarket, and loopholes in the background check system also contribute to the problem. The fact that the respondent was more foreign in urban areas and that rates of domestic and spousal violence were higher in rural areas could also play a role. In this context, clearance rates for firearm-related violent crime were highest when the perpetrator was a family member (82% in 2020) and lowest when the perpetrator was a stranger (46%). While mass shootings, defined by many experts as episodes with four or more deaths, account for a relatively small percentage of total gun crime, they have increased significantly in recent years, with at least eight of the 20 deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history since 2014. In 2020, 39% of firearms used to commit homicide were seized.
See Box 4. While this variable collects information on the weapon used against victims, it does not include information on weapons used when no injuries were sustained (e.g., if a victim was threatened with a weapon but the use did not cause bodily harm). If more than one weapon was used to inflict injury, the weapon used to cause the most serious physical injury is registered. The weapon that causes injury does not record incidents where the firearm was used or fired, but the victim missed. In August, police in Pennsylvania and New Jersey arrested three men they said were smuggling untraceable weapons across state borders. Both gun homicide and suicide rates in the U.S. remain below their peaks. In 2020, there were 6.2 firearm murders per 100,000 population, down from the 1974 rate of 7.2.
And there were 7.0 gun suicides per 100,000 people in 2020, down from 7.7 in 1977. (One caveat when looking at the 1970s figures: The CDC database classifies gun murders and gun suicides between 1968 and 1978 as those caused by guns and explosives. In subsequent years, they are classified only as firearm-related deaths.) While in many provinces, rates of gun violence were higher in rural areas (especially in the rural North), gun violence was proportionally more common in urban areas (Table 2). Specifically, in 2020, the urban areas where firearms were most common (as a proportion of violent crime) were the urban centres of Saskatchewan (4.6% of violent crime), Manitoba (3.5%) and Ontario (3.4%). The rural areas with the highest proportions were in Alberta, where firearms were more common in crime in southern rural areas (4.4%) and northern rural areas (3.8%) than in urban areas (3.2%). Rural Saskatchewan also had high proportions (over 3%) (3.5% in the rural south and 3.4% in the north), although they were lower than those in urban areas. About 48 percent of state prison inmates surveyed said they received the weapon they used from a family member, friend, gun store, pawnshop, flea market, or gun show.