Indigenous people are disproportionately impacted by lethal gun violence, new study reveals

A nationwide study by the Violence Policy Center finds that Indigenous communities experience high rates of gun deaths.

In 2023, Indigenous people were twice as likely as white people to die by homicide —- both gun-related and not gun-related — according to the study, which examined the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That year there were 553 reported gun deaths in the Indigenous community — 246 homicides and 260 suicides. Indigenous communities face overall suicide and firearm suicide rates that are the second highest in the nation, surpassed only by the white population.

Previous VPC research shows the rate of Indigenous women killed by males since 2015 is the second highest in the nation, violence that is gaining international awareness in Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movements. Because of numerous unreported and misclassified deaths among Indigenous women and the community at large, the study warns that the real number of Indigenous people killed by guns is likely higher than reported.

Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, states in a press release about the study’s findings that Indigenous communities face “a continuing crisis of lethal gun violence that outside of impacted communities rarely receives the attention it demands.” He calls for advocates, organizations and policymakers to use the report to help reduce gun violence in Indigenous communities.