Nearly 130 people are killed with guns every day in the United States, totaling an average of 46,111 deaths annually, according to a report published this month by Everytown Research & Policy. The analysis, which draws on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality data from 2021 through 2025, presents what the organization calls the most comprehensive publicly available picture of everyday gun violence in America. The report concludes that firearms now represent the leading cause of death for American children and teens, surpassing all other causes including motor vehicle accidents and disease.

The data reveals that approximately six out of every 10 gun deaths are suicides, while nearly four in 10 are homicides—a category that includes shootings by police. The US gun suicide rate stands nearly 12 times higher than other high-income countries, with white men accounting for 69 percent of firearm suicide victims. Black Americans face disproportionate risk from gun homicide: Black people in the US are 12 times more likely than white people to die by gun homicide, and Black children and teens are 19 times more likely than their white peers to die this way. More than 2,700 children and teens die by gun homicide each year, with shootings affecting those under 13 most frequently occurring in the home and often connected to domestic or family violence. The gun homicide rate in the US is 26 times that of other high-income nations.

The report finds that access to a firearm triples the risk of death by suicide and doubles the risk of death by homicide. Women in the US are 28 times more likely to be killed with a gun than women in other high-income countries, with more than 70 women shot and killed by an intimate partner every month. Nearly 6 million women reported having a gun used on them by a current or former intimate partner at some point in their lifetime, according to CDC survey data cited in the analysis. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed, the report states.

The authors explain that gun violence concentrates in urban neighborhoods characterized by high rates of poverty, racial segregation, discrimination, and what the report describes as deep-rooted systemic and structural inequities. Research cited in the analysis shows that within cities, a small percentage of the total population—people within the social networks most likely to be involved in gun violence—account for the majority of incidents. The report emphasizes that significant data gaps remain due to underfunded and incomplete data collection at state and federal levels, with categories including police shootings and unintentional deaths believed to be greatly underreported in official CDC figures. Approximately 3 million American children witness gun violence every year, and 59 percent of adults or someone they know have experienced gun violence in their lifetime. Filling these data gaps is necessary to truly understand the full impact of gun violence in America, the authors conclude, with the report highlighting that the effects extend far beyond the casualties themselves to shape the lives of millions who witness shootings, know someone who was shot, or live in fear of the next incident.