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Nevada Gun Violence
Fact Sheet

Nevada Gun Violence

Nevada is home to some of the nation’s highest rates of gun deaths and weakest gun laws.

Restoring Social Trust in Democracy, Gun Violence Prevention, State and Local Policy

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A buyer checks out various hand guns on display during the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show on January 14, 2014, in Las Vegas. (AP/Julie Jacobson)
A buyer checks out various hand guns on display during the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show on January 14, 2014, in Las Vegas. (AP/Julie Jacobson)

Nevada’s gun death rates are among the worst in the nation

  • In Nevada, a person is killed with a gun every 20 hours.
  • Nevada is among the deadliest states for gun violence. From 2005 to 2014, Nevada had the 10th-highest rate of gun deaths of any state, with a rate of 14.7 gun deaths for every 100,000 people. This rate was 44 percent higher than the national average.
  • Nevadans are particularly at risk for gun-related suicides. Nevada had the fifth-highest rate of gun suicides in the country from 2005 to 2014: 10.3 gun suicides per 100,000 people.
  • Nevada is one of the 21 states where gun deaths exceed motor vehicle-related deaths.

Women in Nevada face an extraordinarily high risk of fatal domestic violence, driven by the presence of firearms

  • Nevada is among the deadliest states for women in terms of gun-related homicides. Between 2003 and 2012, Nevada had the eighth-highest rate of gun murders of women.
  • Women in Nevada are murdered with guns at a rate 38 percent higher than the national average. This stands in stark contrast with men in Nevada, who are murdered with guns at a rate 3 percent lower than the national rate.
  • 40 percent of homicides of Nevada women are committed by an intimate partner, and firearms are used in approximately 50 percent of these cases.

Nevada has some of the nation’s weakest gun laws

  • The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave Nevada an “F” for the strength of its gun laws in 2015.
  • This organization gave Nevada 16.5 out of the possible 100 points on its 2015 state rankings.

Weak laws make Nevada a favorite state for illegal gun traffickers to purchase guns

  • Nevada had the nation’s fourth-highest rate of crime-gun exports—guns sold in Nevada that are later used in crimes in other states—from 2012 to 2014.
  • The state had a rate of interstate crime-gun trafficking that was almost two times higher than the national average from 2012 to 2014.
  • Many of these crime guns end up in California, a neighboring state with stronger gun laws. The number of guns originally sold in Nevada that were later recovered in crimes in California increased 94 percent between 2006 and 2013.

Polls show Nevada residents strongly support commonsense measures to prevent gun violence

  • A 2014 poll found that 78 percent of Nevada voters supported requiring a background check for every gun sale.

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