Nearly 40,000 people in the United States died of cannons last year, marking the highest number of gun deaths in decades, according to a new analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CNN's analysis also showed that 23,854 people died of suicide by guns in 2017, the highest number in 18 years. It is a difference of more than 7,000 deaths compared with 16,599 suicide deaths by guns in 1999.
The rate of suicide deaths by age rose from 6 in 1999 to 6.9 in 2017.
Armed casualties include death of guns by murder and suicide, unintentional deaths, war deaths or legal interventions, and unspecified deaths.
When the data are analyzed by race and sex, they show that white men were 23,927 out of a total of 39,773 deaths of weapons last year, including suicides.
In 2017, the proportion of suicide bombers matched by age to weapons was highest among white men at 14 per 100,000 – compared to:
- 2.2 Among white women
- 6.1 among black men
- 0.7 among black women
- 3.0 among Asian men
- 0.5 among Asian women
- 9.3 Among Indian Americans or Alaska native people
- 1.4 among American Indians or Alaska-born women
In the same year, the age-adjusted rate of fatalities was highest among black men by 33 per 100,000, compared to:
- 3.5 among white men
- 1.1 among white women
- 3.5 among black women
- 1.4 among Asians
- 0.5 among Asian women
- 4.8 among Native Americans or Alaska native people
- 1.2 among American Indians or Alaska-born women
Also, in 2017, the age-adjusted rate of legal intervention or war was highest among Indian Americans or male-born Alaska at 1.1 per 100,000 – compared with:
- 0.3 among white men
- 0.0 among white women
- 0.5 among black men
- Rates for all other groups were unreliable or not recorded
"Brothers violence has been part of our daily lives much too long. Time has passed because leaders are selected at every level of government work together to make the gun a rare and violent violence."
John Bonfield contributed to this report.
