BALTIMORE — Baltimore City has the second highest gun-related death rate, according to a newly released report from BackgroundChecks.org.
The study was conducted using 2020 data from the CDC’s WONDER Database.
That year, the analysis found there were 269 gun related deaths in Baltimore City, which equates to 45.9 for every 100,000 residents. That number was nearly three-and-a-half times higher than the 2020 national average.
Of all the Baltimore homicides that year, 87.7 percent involved a gun. That's more than 10 percent above the national average.
Baltimore City ended 2021 with 337 murders and 728 non-fatal shootings, up slightly from 2020.
It was the sixth consecutive year that the City surpassed 300 or more homicides.
The rise in gun related deaths is not just a problem plaguing Baltimore City, but rather the entire U.S.
FBI data recently showed a 5.6 percent increase in violent crime nationwide from 2019 to 2020, while the murder rate rose by around 30 percent, one of the largest year-over-year increases on record.
The U.S. has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership of any country, and researchers have found the prevalence of guns to be associated with greater amounts of violent crime and gun deaths generally.
In 2020, gun related homicides in the country jumped to 6.2 per 100,000 residents, nearly doubling since 2014.
The 45,221 gun related deaths in 2020 around the nation was 14 percent higher than in 2019 and 43 percent more than a decade ago, according to the study.
Over the past three years, more than three in four U.S. homicides (76.4%) involved a gun, researchers concluded.
The full report can be read here.
