Gun violence is a nationwide problem. But because each state has its own unique history, people, and laws, the burden of firearm violence is not shared equally across states or population groups.

RAND researchers have analyzed the effects of several common gun policies, including laws that are more restrictive and more permissive about gun ownership, storage, and use. The result is a clearer understanding of where firearm-related deaths are concentrated and how changes to state laws might alter that picture.

By visualizing state-level mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this interactive map shows that states in the northeast and the coastal west have among the lowest firearm death rates.

Conversely, in the south and mountain west, firearm death rates are especially high.

To see how each state compares with the national average, explore gun mortality outcomes by gender, race, ethnicity, urbanicity, or age in the map below.

Key Takeaways

  • The United States has a high firearm death rate, but this fact can obscure the striking differences in death rates among U.S. states, where, for example, Mississippi has a firearm death rate more than seven times higher than that of Massachusetts or Hawaii and five times higher than that of New Jersey.
  • There are wide and geographically specific differences in state firearm homicide rates; states in the northeast, west, and north-central regions have low firearm homicide rates, while states in the central midwest and south have among the highest such rates.
  • Firearm suicides are less geographically concentrated than firearm homicides, but rates of such suicides are especially low in several northeastern states, California, and Hawaii. In contrast, rates are high in the mountain west and midsouth. Indeed, rates in Wyoming, Montana, and Alaska are more than eight times higher than rates in Massachusetts or New Jersey.
  • Overall, firearm death rates vary a great deal by subgroup, but across all subgroups, death rates remain lower than average in California, Hawaii, Minnesota, and several northeastern states. Death rates are highest for many subgroups in the south-central and central midwestern states and the mountain west.

Read the full article about firearm laws at RAND Corporation.