Gun Suicides Up, Murders Down in US Cities
The rate of suicide using guns has gone up in most of the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas, but the murder rate has fallen, according to new statistics.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 22,000 people were killed using guns in 2009 and 2010. That compares to 25,406 firearm murders in 2006 and 2007.
And killings are still high among youths. The second leading cause of deaths among teenagers was homicide, and 83 percent of these killings involved a gun.
New Orleans has by far the highest per capita rate of homicides using guns-- 23.2 murders per 100,000 people in 2006-2007 and 19 per 100,000 in 2009-2010. Other cities with high murder rates include Memphis, with a rate of 11.4 in 2006 and 9.4 in 2010; Birmingham, Ala., with a rate of 11 in 2006-2007 and 8.4 in 2009-2010 and Baltimore, with a murder rate of 10.3 in 2006-2007 and 7.7 in 2009-2010.
New York’s homicide rate was 3.2 per 100,000 in 2006-2007 and 2.8 per 100,000 in 2009-2010. The rate in Portland, Ore., was 1.4 per 100,000 in both time periods.
Suicides, on the other hand, went up. The report found 38,122 suicides involving firearms in 2009-2010, up from 34,232 in 2006-2007.
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