Washington, D.C. — Preliminary data suggest that gun violence broadly trended down in 2023 across the United States, representing a historic decrease. A new Center for American Progress column contextualizes these trends by comparing cities with strong gun laws to those with weak gun laws.
The Gun Violence Archive estimates that there was a 7.7 percent decline in gun homicides from 2022 to 2023, the largest decline since it began reporting in 2014. The new CAP analysis uses Gun Violence Archive data on the 300 most populous cities to conduct an unprecedented, in-depth preliminary analysis of U.S. gun violence trends in 2023.
Some key findings from the analysis include:
- 36 states saw their gun homicide rates decrease from 2022 to 2023.
- Of the 300 largest U.S. cities, cities in states with the strongest gun laws experienced 19.4 percent fewer total gun homicides in 2023 than in 2022.
- Cities in states with the weakest gun laws saw only 5.1 percent fewer total gun homicides.
- States that received an “A” grade from Giffords in 2023 experienced a 13.7 percent drop in total gun homicides from 2022 to 2023.
- States with an “F” grade experienced only a 5.1 percent decline in total gun homicides over the same time period.
- No state with an “A” rating saw an increased gun homicide rate in that period.
“Until lawmakers everywhere get serious about protecting people over guns, there will be two Americas when it comes to public safety,” said Chandler Hall, senior policy analyst for Gun Violence Prevention at CAP. “Now is the opportunity not only to sustain progress but also to deepen investments in evidence-based solutions in order to end the United States’ gun violence epidemic once and for all.”
Read the column: “In 2023, Gun Violence Trended Down Across the Country” by Chandler Hall
For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, please contact Colin Seeberger at [email protected].