Highest Rates in States with Higher Gun Ownership Rates, Weaker Gun Violence Prevention Laws

Washington, DC — States with lower rates of gun ownership and stronger gun violence prevention laws have the lowest overall suicide rates in the nation according to a new Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis of 2020 data (the most recent year available) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Conversely, states with the highest suicide rates have higher gun ownership rates and weaker gun violence prevention laws.

The tables below list the three states with the three lowest and highest overall suicide rates in 2020 and include for each state its overall suicide rate, gun suicide rate, total number of suicides and gun suicides, percentage of suicides that involved a gun, and household gun ownership rate. A similar table for all 50 states ranked by overall suicide rate is available at https://vpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/2020-State-Overall-Suicide-Rates-ranked-by-rate.pdf.

The state with the lowest overall suicide rate in 2020 was New Jersey (7.64 suicides per 100,000 residents) with a gun suicide rate of 2.04 gun suicides per 100,000 residents. New York ranked second lowest (overall suicide rate of 8.49 suicides per 100,000 residents) with a gun suicide rate of 2.39 gun suicides per 100,000 residents. Rhode Island ranked third lowest (overall suicide rate of 8.89 suicides per 100,000 residents) with a gun suicide rate of 2.84 gun suicides per 100,000 residents. In each of these three states guns were used in 32 percent or fewer of the suicides reported that year and all had a household gun ownership rate below 21 percent. Compared to the three states with the highest suicide rates, each of these states has stronger gun violence prevention laws.

The Three States with the Lowest Suicide Rates Ranked by Overall Suicide Rate

The state with the highest overall suicide rate in the nation in 2020 was Wyoming (31.25 suicides per 100,000 residents), which also had the highest gun suicide rate (21.98 gun suicides per 100,000 residents). Alaska ranked second (27.90 suicides per 100,000 residents) and had the second highest gun suicide rate (18.19 gun suicides per 100,000 residents). Montana ranked third (27.76 suicides per 100,000 residents) and had the third highest gun suicide rate (17.49 gun suicides per 100,000 residents). In each of these three states guns were used in 63 percent or more of the suicides reported that year and all had a household gun ownership rate above 54 percent. Compared to the states with the lowest suicide rates, each of these states has weak gun violence prevention laws.

The Three States with the Highest Suicide Rates Ranked by Overall Suicide Rate

VPC Executive Director Josh Sugarmann states, “Year after year, suicide leads our nation’s annual gun toll of more than 45,000 dead. The unique lethality of firearms means that a suicide attempt with a gun, as compared to other, less lethal, means, is far more likely to be completed. People who use a gun to kill themselves aren’t necessarily more suicidal, they just have the tragic misfortune of having the most lethal means available to them in their time of depression and turmoil.”

In 2020, the national overall suicide rate was 13.95 per 100,000 and the gun suicide rate was 7.37 per 100,000. That year there were 45,979 suicides in the United States: 126 suicides per day; one suicide every 11.4 minutes. More than half (53 percent) of these were firearm suicides, which totaled 24,292 in 2020.

State suicide and gun suicide rates are calculated by dividing the number of relevant suicide deaths by the total state population and multiplying the result by 100,000 to obtain the rate per 100,000, which is the standard and accepted method for comparing fatal levels of gun violence.

The VPC defined states with “weaker” gun violence prevention laws as those that add little or nothing to federal law and have permissive laws governing the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public. States with “stronger” gun violence prevention laws were defined as those that add significant state regulation that is absent from federal law, such as restricting access to particularly hazardous and deadly types of firearms (for example, assault weapons), setting minimum safety standards for firearms and/or requiring a permit to purchase a firearm, and restricting the open and concealed carrying of firearms in public.

State gun ownership rates were obtained from the July 2019 American Journal of Preventative Medicine article by Aaron J. Kivisto, et al., “Firearm Ownership and Domestic Versus Nondomestic Homicide in the U.S.,” which is the most recent comprehensive published data available on state gun ownership.

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