Washington, D.C., February 13, 2023 – This Black History Month, Brady – the national gun violence prevention group with a legacy of winning common-sense solutions – released an analysis on how gun deaths and injuries impact Black people. The analysis, featured in an exclusive with TheGrio, examines how gun violence disproportionately impacts Black communities in the forms of firearm homicide, suicide, and police violence.
As the analysis states, gun violence has been the leading cause of death among all children and teens in the United States since 2020, yet it goes largely undiscussed that gun violence has been the leading cause of death among Black children since 2006.
“We cannot celebrate Black history without acknowledging the systemic racial injustices that have shaped our history,” says Kelly Sampson, Director of Racial Justice for Brady. “Analyzing the data about gun violence in Black America uncovers our past and helps us to see how we can tailor our solutions and better incorporate a racial justice perspective to take us to a safer tomorrow.”
The staggering analysis illustrates just how disproportionately Black people are impacted by gun violence. Despite accounting for only 13.6% of the U.S. population, Black people account for 27% of those shot and killed by police since 2015. While 5% of white people shot and killed by police are unarmed, nearly 8% of Black people shot and killed by police are unarmed.
The study also found rates of firearm suicide are rapidly increasing among Black people in the U.S. While firearm suicide rates have increased by 6.3% over the past five years among non-Hispanic white people, the firearm suicide rate among Black people has increased by 50.8%. The growth is even larger when looking at the rise in youth suicide. Black children have experienced a 78.9% increase in firearm suicide rates over the past five years compared to only a 5.1% increase among non-Hispanic white children.
“What we’re seeing here is a public health epidemic,” says Colleen Creighton, director of Brady’s End Family Fire program. “Just like any public health crisis, we need to find a way to squash the contagion that is ripping apart families, especially Black families. Mental illness is not the reason firearm suicides are rapidly increasing; it’s the guns.”
Click here to read more of Brady’s analysis and learn about Black leaders who are working to free all Americans from gun violence.
Brady has one powerful mission — to unite all Americans against gun violence. We work across Congress, the courts, and our communities with over 90 grassroots chapters, bringing together young and old, red and blue, and every shade of color to find common ground in common sense. In the spirit of our namesakes Jim and Sarah Brady, we have fought for over 45 years to take action, not sides, and we will not stop until this epidemic ends. It’s in our hands.
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