Study: Firearm Homicide Rate for Black Men 29 Per 100,000; White Men 2 Per 100,000

Authors Current Events Jordan Michaels
Study: Firearm Homicide Rate for Black Men 29 Per 100,000; White Men 2 Per 100,000

A screengrab from PBS Newshour’s “Why Chicago hasn’t yet escaped an epidemic of gun violence.” Black men are 14 times more likely than white men to die by firearm homicide, according to the study. (Photo: PBS Newshour)

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine claims to have discovered marked geographical disparities between the homicide and suicide rates among black and white men.

Researchers compiled data on homicides and suicides committed with guns in all fifty states, focusing specifically on non-Hispanic black and white males.

They found significant differences between the two demographics. In gun-related incidents, black men are more likely to die in homicides while white men are more likely to die in suicides.

But while they found no geographical trends related to homicides, 6 of the top 10 states with the highest gun-related suicide rates among whites are located in the south and the other four are located in the west. Northern and eastern states boast the lowest suicide rates among white men.

“The most surprising thing to me when I was conducting the analysis was how different the rates were across states,” Corinne Riddell, a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University in Canada who was the lead author of the study.

“We knew going into it that whites would have a higher rate of suicide and that black men would have a higher rate of homicide, but to see that level of variation in the rates across states was surprising,” she said. “Any time I see variations so large like that, that can’t be due to chance. I want to know why the differences exist.”

Unfortunately, the limitations of the study do not allow researchers to answer Riddell’s question.

SEE ALSO: The Most Definitive Scientific Study on the Question of, ‘Do Guns Kill People?’

The study used death-certificate data on homicides and suicides among non-Hispanic black and white men across the United States between 2008 and 2016. The data came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research database.

Compared with white men, the researchers found that black men experienced 27 more firearm homicides per 100,000 people annually nationwide (29.12 for black men vs. 2.1 for white men).  “Black men are 14 times more likely than white men to die by firearm homicide,” states the study.

Compared with black men, the researchers found that white men had nine more firearm suicides per 100,000 people annually nationwide (5.41 for black men vs. 14.34 for white men). The ten states with the highest suicide rates were Mississippi, Nevada, Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Colorado, and Texas.

While data collected from death certificates can indicate general trends, it lacks the contextual information necessary to speculate on why those trends exist.

“This study, like any study that depends on death certificate data, paints a broad picture,” Dr. James Buehler, clinical professor of health management and policy at Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health in Philadelphia, told CNN.

“It lets you see large patterns and make general inferences when the findings are triangulated with what is known from other research, and it lets you frame questions for further investigations,” he said. “But this type of study generally cannot answer questions that begin with the word ‘why.’”

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  • Kurt December 11, 2020, 5:01 am

    I think this is very misleading and racist. Black people are NOT killing each other… they are merely peacefully protesting each other.
    Killing and homicide are such ugly negative words to use.

    • Bob April 15, 2021, 11:26 am

      You forgot to tag it “Sarcasm” some people don’t get it

  • Click Bang September 7, 2020, 9:59 am

    How many black homicides were killed by black murderers.????

  • Adam Robinson December 26, 2019, 11:21 am

    Reading the study was quite amusing. They stated some facts and then reached conclusions that were contradictory to the facts. Their facts and conclusions left out other factors that are more likely to be the cause like econimics and population density. What conclusions they did reach had exceptions in the data so great to invalidate their conclusion. They state lax gun laws are a cause yet when you look Illinois was one of the top highest murders. Illinois has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Then if you take into account that most of the murders were in Chicago which again restricts gun ownership more than the state as a whole it makes even less sense. It is quite apparent they alreday had their conclusions and tried to force the data to support it.

    • Bob Rand January 5, 2021, 1:05 am

      Knucklehead.

    • Greg Vernon January 30, 2021, 3:45 am

      All I wanted to say is I agree with you Sir 100%.

  • Storm December 14, 2019, 6:54 pm

    It is and has been a behavior problem located in an identifiable subgroup of the total population. Additional studies of IQ and moral development have consistently shown a correlation with increased levels of violence in the same population. This is not an issue that is amenable to correction.

  • Mike October 8, 2019, 6:46 pm

    Really? You can’t figure it out? Blacks are 13% of the population and regularly commit 50÷% of homicides, mostly against other blacks. Even so, a white man is far more likely to he shot by a black man than vice versa. These statistics are consistent for decades and easily found. But this study is shocking and befuddling? Only if your reality is defined by politics rather than facts.

  • izraul September 2, 2018, 10:19 pm

    wow… it’s fucking hilarious to see all these reactions. “That can’t be right… this isn’t accurate.. blah blah blah” LOL

    It’s based on “death certificates.” Actual deaths. The fact so many people are trying to discredit it is just both stupid and funny as hell at the same time. LOL Fucking degenerates.

    It must be part of that “deep state” fake news plot, right!? lol

    Seriously… like we really needed that survey to know that shit?! It’s not rocket science.

    One of the biggest tell tale signs of miserable people is they whine and complain a lot, about everything and everyone.Always blaming others for the misery of the world.. always hating.. always yapping about who they don’t like and what they don’t like… for fucks sake… don’t act like you don’t know this shit. People always so focused on themselves have to know some obvious shit like that.. : /

    • Jim May 22, 2020, 7:11 am

      izraul
      So every thing you said points finger straight back at you sir..please read ur comment and see the truth lol…you da biggest baby period..

    • Bob April 15, 2021, 11:31 am

      Wow somebody fell of their medication

  • Timothy Craven August 24, 2018, 9:30 am

    As far as suicide goes… most of the first hand suicides I have knowledge of, most of those guys were in their 50’s or 60’s and had failing health. Some had cancer, others alcohol related illnesses.

    • Jim May 22, 2020, 7:13 am

      Timothy
      I’ve lost 3 people to suicide in my direct family and all of them were related to depression…
      There’s no good excuse for killing oneself its lack of faith in God and hope for a future in most cases..

      • Greg Vernon January 30, 2021, 3:54 am

        Timothy , sir you hit the nail on the head when you stated it was a lack of faith in God, I believe that is a very big problem in this world today Sir.

  • Joe Blow May 3, 2018, 10:52 am

    Who paid for this study to be done? Why was it done by a Canadian school? What medical benifits are to be determined from this? In my opinion this is a study that uses crap data to make a headling to sway a political agenda.If you read the study it uses data from a phone calls made in 2004 that asked health questions along with gun ownership questions. They also asked how many guns owned. If you live in a state with very restrictive gun laws are you going to inform a random person on the phone that you own a firearm? Would you tell a telemarketer how many guns you own? So quality of data is out the window.They used death certificates data from 2014 and compare it to 2004 data. Race is of the person that was murdered or that killed themself not the person pulling the trigger. Obviously it is easy to figure out the correlation with suicides as to who pulled the trigger but this study does not attempt to address the issue of the race of the offender that commited the murders.With only three graphs in the study and one of them being rates of gun ownership and the murder rate it is obvious at what is being attempted by this study. As stated in the study more restrictive gun laws and lower gun ownership result in a lower murder rate. It is not stated if the restrictions on guns are from 2004 or 2014 or today. It also does not Correlate the population density, gun ownership, and race together.It also makes a site mention of alcohol rates among suicides. This shows that there are a plethora of external factors that could affect the results. They did not mention drugs or socioeconomic factors.If you like data and like to find your own conclusions you can go to the Uniform criminal reporting system at the FBI. You can download data in 1 million different formats and slice and dice it how ever you wish. They break it down a million different ways. You can see murders by weapon type, pistols, rifle, shotgun, knife, other and my favorite mouth hands and feet. Just remember that these are reporting agencies and not all agencies report. For example the city of Chicago does not report to the FBI in a way that can be added to the reports on the website. Seems a little fishy to me but….See for yourself at https://ucr.fbi.govJust like this report you can use data in any fashion that best suites your “study” to have a headline in favor of your political position.

  • Dan May 2, 2018, 6:48 am

    Wow! They found the solution to gun violence!

  • loupgarous April 29, 2018, 6:26 pm

    Like WISQARS before it, the CDC’s WONDER database does NOT accurately reflect actual injury statistics, including firearms injuries and deaths.

    Quoting from https://wonder.cdc.gov/DataUse.html# “Data Use Restrictions”, the CDC’s policy is stated as “For sub-national geography, do not present or publish death or birth counts of 9 or fewer or rates based on counts of nine or fewer (in figures, graphs, maps, table, etc.).

    “Sub-national geography” has been defined in the past by CDC as states, cities, and county/parish/borough level government.

    WISQARS, the CDC’s injury database before WONDER, required statistics for every sub-national government report of injuries to be inflated to ten, regardless of the actual number of deaths.

    I suspect the inordinately large number of African-American gun deaths may be due to these data use restrictions.

    Just looking at county-equivalent reports (which would come from local coroners at that level) there are 3,142 counties, parishes, boroughs and other equivalent local governments in the US. The potential exists, under CDC data use restrictions, for reporting of 31,320 gun deaths and/or injuries regardless of how many actual gun deaths and/or injuries actually happened. Most counties in the US probably suffer fewer than ten gun-related deaths per year – but you wouldn’t know it looking at CDC data.

    That is why we ought to be skeptical of CDC’s injury data – their databases deliberately inflate the number of gun deaths and injuries (along with the number of all other injuries).

    While the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting system ucr.fbi.gov may not capture suicides, it does present gun crimes and deaths in correct (and illuminating) proportion to other deaths. And they do not inflate the number of gun crimes ending in death or injury.

    For example, when some Wisconsin lawmakers wanted to outlaw “assault rifles”, looking at the FBI’s UCRs for the previous year showed blunt objects and fists killed MANY more people in Wisconsin than all rifles combined (since FBI doesn’t break gun deaths down farther than “handguns” and “rifles”, we have to assume that “assault rifles” were only part of the eight deaths in Wisconsin that year attributable to rifles in the UCR).

    Statistics which deviate from the actual facts they are advertised to cover on purpose ought to be distrusted until proven accurate. The CDC has guaranteed its gun death and injury statistics will inflate the incidence of those events “to protect the identity of individuals”. Congress ought to have the CDC bureaucrat who dreamed up their Data Use Restrictions to explain why we can’t use real gun death numbers to make policy.

  • BIGKIELBASSA April 28, 2018, 10:03 am

    Check out Chicago Police Departments website / Crimes by race or go to the statistics at: http://www.heyjackass.com

  • John Rash April 27, 2018, 7:09 pm

    Really, if this has to be explained to you, you are part of the problem.

  • Carl April 27, 2018, 2:16 pm

    The higher homicide rate for black males is almost certainly highly correlated to economic status (as is probably the reverse trend for suicide with white males). It is likely that lack of money to allow social and capital options leads to desperation solved by participation in crime (perceived easy money), which in most cases is linked to drugs. The probable larger population of poor black males leads to participation in risky illegal activities and increased homicides. Wealthier (on average) white males living in a different subset of the culture are less likely to be driven towards illegal risky endeavors that will get them killed; however, cultural pressures can lead to more depression and there is likely a belief that suicide is a viable option for them. Suicides are very different from homicides, except in the case of murder-suicides which involve homicides. Otherwise, individual suicides, while something society probably should strive to prevent, is a personal choice. Homicides where one person murders another because of involvement in a gang and/or drugs, mental deficit, other crimes, or old fashioned jealousy in interpersonal relationships involve a choice by one person against another not involved in that choice. The means of controlling and reducing both are different because they are different in nature. Gun control doesn’t do anything of merit in either case.

    • Ben There April 28, 2018, 8:55 pm

      I disagree on the social and capital options. I’ve seen many gangbangers dead laying outside of a Lincoln Navigator where it was paid for with cash. Or in the other case they had enough money to get it off the lot. Now perhaps they owed $50,000 on it still, but I bet they were paying it off selling drugs, a tax free income. And these cultural pressures you speak of. What are they? Maybe more mental illness? Not sure where you’re getting this but please source it that whites have more cultural pressures..I agree with your opposition to gun control, but how you got there, although on the surface “sounds” factual, there’s little but speculation to substantiate it. Your comments list: “Amost certainly, highly correlated, probably the reverse, It is likely, in most cases, probable larger, likely a belief, likely that lack of,” …..is indeed your opinion, which is fine, but not anywhere near scientific as you intend it to sound. I believe there is a difference in cultures that are completely different when it comes to violence. Black on black crime is not a myth, it’s reality. Whites commit suicide more often with firearms, and blacks use firearms in the murder of others 14.5 times more than whites.

    • SKTrynoskySr. May 18, 2018, 10:35 am

      This DID NOT exist in the past. You are looking at a symptom of a larger problem. The destruction of the Black Family. You have to reach back prior to LBJ’s “War on Poverty” to find the stats which demonstrate very little difference between blacks and whites in crime. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan predicted it during the Nixon Administration and it has come to pass. 70 plus percent of black children born out of wedlock, no stable father figure in the home. Kids raising themselves as if it were “Lord of the Flies”. You are back to advocating the classic 1960’s solution, “Throw MORE money at the problem”. Spent most of my 40 year NYC career walking the streets of minority neighborhoods with a deep appreciation for the struggles of the people living there. Ivory tower solutions are BS. Want to get somewhere, each neighborhood should have a commission composed of local cops, firemen, store owners and 80 year old female residents who make recommendations to City Hall who then carry them out. No Social Workers, no “community activists” no “reverends”.

  • Johne April 27, 2018, 2:10 pm

    Reading the study was quite amusing. They stated some facts and then reached conclusions that were contradictory to the facts. Their facts and conclusions left out other factors that are more likely to be the cause like econimics and population density. What conclusions they did reach had exceptions in the data so great to invalidate their conclusion. They state lax gun laws are a cause yet when you look Illinois was one of the top highest murders. Illinois has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Then if you take into account that most of the murders were in Chicago which again restricts gun ownership more than the state as a whole it makes even less sense. It is quite apparent they alreday had their conclusions and tried to force the data to support it.

  • KELLY B FORD April 27, 2018, 11:52 am

    Facts is da facts homie

  • Mike Watkins April 27, 2018, 11:44 am

    Liberals love to tell you how we should emulate some gun-restricting country, like for instance Sweden, because “their low gun homicide rates prove gun control works.”

    Come back at them with this: if you remove young urban black male homicides by other young urban black males, from US statistics, our gun homicide rate is about the same as Sweden’s.

    THE PROBLEM IS NOT GUNS, THE PROBLEM IS THE SUB-CULTURES WITHIN THE US THAT TEACH THE YOUTH THAT VIOLENCE IS PART OF BEING A MAN.

  • Jude Reynolds April 27, 2018, 10:47 am

    came to read about guns, instead as per usual, gunsAm sets up a swamp that its resident swine delight to wallow in. How was this NOT going to become an echo chamber where the majority of posters scourges black americans? Rhetorical question of course as I’m wiser than to linger for the reply which will only double-down on the expressions of contempt and hate.

    • Al April 27, 2018, 11:22 am

      Wow!
      So, lets see how you explain yourself and your post when you first use hateful rhetoric (“resident swine”) and then pontificate about others hate???
      I believe the word shmuck best describes you, and as for the wiser part, don’t pat yourself on the back just yet, the expression, ‘no fool like an old fool’ certainly still applies.

    • Dennis April 27, 2018, 2:24 pm

      Why post if you’re not going to interact. I wouldn’t call that “wise”. I suggest you’re blatantly opinionated, self centered and certainly pompous in your post. Which, by doubling down on your expression of contempt and hate via your post you’ve helped the rest of us understand the very foundation of your conceited post.

      Too bad, there’s so much more to discuss.

    • FirstStateMark April 27, 2018, 5:34 pm

      I agree with Jude. I can get these results from reading Fox News. I came for gun reviews.

      • Ben There April 28, 2018, 8:59 pm

        What results would you get from CNN?

      • Dan May 2, 2018, 6:45 am

        Politicians love to see polarization among us! It’s how they get away with representing their Corporate sponsors while giving lip service to us commoners!

  • Mexoplex April 27, 2018, 10:39 am

    What the hell does Kanye West have to do with this article? He\’s Trump\’s BOY now.

  • Mexoplex April 27, 2018, 10:38 am

    What the hell does Kanye West have to do with this article? He’s Trump’s BOY now.

  • Maha April 27, 2018, 10:33 am

    These statistics will be ignored, disparaged, and “proven” false as they are carefully “studied” to find bias. Liberal advocates of “intersectionality” will suggest the very act of black on black shooting is the result of societal racism. What it really amounts to is Democrat party maneuverings to gain voters that led to disproportionate amounts of fatherless men in the black “community”.

  • Steve Warren April 27, 2018, 9:31 am

    Libs are constantly making the claim that America is always number one or two of the highest industrialized nations for gun violence.
    I counter with the fact that if you factor out gun violence involving black people America drops to number 37 on that list.
    If that sounds too close to being a racist statement just factor out Washington D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and most other large cities and you get the same results.
    What do large cities have in common besides high homicide rates? Democrat control, strict gun control, and…

    • joe mamma April 27, 2018, 10:41 am

      Notice “NON hispanic” only were counted… I can only imagine the rates getting worse. Just saying

      • Dennis April 27, 2018, 2:32 pm

        Joe,

        Depending on how far back the study went (I admit, I didn’t get into the weeds with it) would depend on whether or not the hispanics were listed as “white” or not on the forms. I remember the days when hispanics were clumped together with “white/Caucasian” much like Native Americans were (relating to data collection). So, even though the feds conduct these reviews the locals use their particular information they’ve gleaned (if at all) to complete those reviews. But that’s just one of many, many variances of data gathering. I’m told it’s getting better…

    • fee April 27, 2018, 2:18 pm

      Brazil just did a study showing that 33 percent of the murders in the world are committed by just 8 percent of the population. The killers are all in Latin America (mainly Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico and Central America).

  • Aaron April 27, 2018, 9:23 am

    *Kanye

  • Conservative immigrant April 27, 2018, 8:04 am

    Gun are racist?….LOL

  • Art The Fart April 27, 2018, 4:55 am

    The problem may be that a high percentage of black children grow up without a father, and that being the case, they probably have not been properly taught how to handle a firearm safely and responsibly. By the time we (myself, my two brothers, and my sister) were 8 or 9 years of age, we understood how to safely handle and fire, our Dad’s handguns and rifles. I believe that a large percentage of parents are failing to do that, which can result in tragic accidents or criminal behavior on the part of young adults, when it comes to safe and responsible handling of firearms. Like an automobile or power tool, a gun is merely a tool, but it needs to be handled and used responsibly. Many more people die each year in vehicle related crashes than with firearms, but the lesson is the same. Irresponsible behavior can and does lead to tragic results.

    • Cyrus April 27, 2018, 7:26 am

      I like your analogy about power tools . . . if your not taught properly and practice safe handling of power tools you are just another News Story of fingers sawed off, metal bits shooting into your eyes, wood kickback into your body, etc. Have to fully agree with you!

    • joefoam April 27, 2018, 9:03 am

      Art the Fart-blaming gun deaths on improper safety training is absurd. They aren’t accidentally shooting themselves because they didn’t know how to handle a gun. More training would mean less misses and more killings.Young black men coming from a family with no father figure migrate into gangs where they kill other young black men.

    • Zupglick April 27, 2018, 10:26 am

      Blame Darwin.

      • frontncenter September 2, 2018, 10:54 pm

        Yeah,.. blame Darwin. Cause he’s the weak minded a-hole that created a mess that can’t even take the thought of accepting responsibility for, right? Tell me Mr. Civilized Genius.. Is that the same theory you would use for a pitbull that attcked someone? Must be Darwin right? Certainly couldn’t be the ignorant a-hole who wasn’t even smart enough to know that mistreating a dog could possibly have ill effects. lol smh

        Sometimes I’m just in awe at the amount of ignorance displayed by such a “superior people.” : / Bravo!

      • frontncenter September 2, 2018, 10:58 pm

        Even more impressive is how anyone could actually expect a mess to clean itself by keeping on with the same tired gay bullshit that created it in the first place. Superior intellect indeed. : /

  • Dr. Strangelove April 27, 2018, 4:24 am

    So, did the study include the work of Lott or Kleck, backed up by the hidden CDC data?

  • Carl April 27, 2018, 3:25 am

    Studies show that mass shootings are 95% more likely to be committed by white males than any other race.

    • XSommer April 27, 2018, 8:17 am

      Which given that there is an infinitesimally small chance of becoming a victim of a shooting matters not at all. You have a better chance of winning the Mega Millions or Powerball Lottery than getting shot or even having a member of your family or close friends shot, so how does it matter what the race is of the perpetrator?

    • Steve Warren April 27, 2018, 9:38 am

      Carl, That is Main Stream Media Fake News.

      80% of mass shootings are committed by blacks. There is a phenomenon called “Let out” shootings that take place every week across America where at nightclub closing time, “Let out” time, there are mass shootings where bystanders are randomly and indiscriminately shot by disgruntled patrons. It almost never makes the news because it only involves black people, but it is happening.

    • Fee April 27, 2018, 2:23 pm

      If you use the FBI definition of a mass shooting (5 or more shot at), it will include drive by shootings. Suddenly majority of your American mass shootings will be done by inner city black kids. I think Muslims killed the most (nearly 3200 on 9/11). It all depends on how you define mass shootings. MSM goes for the headline mass shootings which are mostly white males. It fits the narrative of the evil armed white male.

    • Leighton Cavendish April 27, 2018, 4:46 pm

      Depends on what you define as “mass”…
      if you count the FBI definition of 4 or more…then the outcome is markedly different.

  • Mark April 25, 2018, 7:34 pm

    “Why?” Because there are differences between the races. This was obvious to our grandparents, but in this PC/social Marxist world we have to invent “reasons”. This will all be blamed on White racism, even though the high Black homicide rate is all Black on Black. The high White suicide rate amongst males is due to lack of hope and our demographic displacement. It’s all very unfortunate, welcome to the new America. God Help Us.

    • frontncenter September 2, 2018, 10:44 pm

      Oh… so now whites are victims with no hope? lol Man c’mon with that crap. Seriously… stooping to that level of ignorance ? Unreal. I’ve never seen people try so hard to avoid honesty in my life, and frankly it’s just pathetic and sad.

      We’re supposed to be the smarter and more civilized people right? Give me a break. Can’t even be honest and real about anything, and yet somehow were supposed to be better than everyone else!? What a sorry joke..

      For people who do nothing but whine, bitch and complain all day long, about everything and everyone, we sure as hell don’t do anything worth a damn towards real change. Cut the narcissistic bull already and man up for once in your lives.

      You can’t act smart if you keep pretending to be stupid. Unless maybe you really are. Can anyone really be that stupid? You think you’re making yourself look better by denying the obvious..? lol I’m just embarrassed for all of you.. going to such idiotic lengths for butt hurt pride. Even to the point of resorting to the “we have no hope” card. smh Mental weakness in all its glory.

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