The nationwide gun death rate in 2021, the study said, increased to 14.71 per 100,000 people, up from 13.73 per 100,000 people in 2020.
“America is facing an unprecedented gun violence crisis,” Kristen Rand, VPC’s government affairs director, said. “The evidence could not be more compelling that our spiraling gun death rates are driven by exposure to firearms.”
Josh Sugarmann, the center’s executive director, said he's rarely surprised by the results anymore, especially when it comes to the South.
“The fact is that these states have virtually no laws on a statewide level that go beyond federal gun law,” he said. “And there's a reason for that …they're pro-gun states.”
Sugarmann said the south’s outlook contrasts with states on the east coast that have significantly lower gun death rates and ownership rates. For example, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, rank in the bottom five.
Communities in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana that do want stronger gun laws are at the mercy of their state governments thanks to firearms preemption laws, meaning no city or community can pass a gun law tougher than what is in effect statewide.
Sugarmann believes another issue these states have is that they are in denial that they even have a gun problem, with some trying to segment gun death. However, VPC uses the CDC’s data to analyze the total number of gun deaths. That number includes homicides, suicides, and unintentional deaths.
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration among Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama and WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
