By Center For American Progress
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Washington, D.C. — While much of the conversation on gun violence has centered around large American cities, rural America’s gun violence crisis has gone largely forgotten. This focus on individual cities comes at the expense of achieving meaningful and long-lasting safety for all Americans. Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from 2021 through 2024, a new Center for American Progress analysis finds that rural counties persistently have some of the highest rates of gun violence in the country.
Some key findings include:
- Between 2021 and 2024, the majority of U.S. counties with the highest annualized gun homicide rate were rural.
- Some of America’s biggest cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, had lower rates of gun homicides in 2024 than many rural counties.
- Counties in states with the weakest gun laws experienced the highest rates of gun homicides in 2024.
“Instead of politicizing crime and community violence, public officials need to recognize that gun violence is a uniquely American public health crisis that harms every community, regardless of size or political leanings,” said Chandler Hall, associate director for Gun Violence Prevention at CAP and author of the fact sheet. “Congress should invest in evidence-based public safety solutions—such as law enforcement and community violence intervention programs—and work to make all communities safer.”
Read the fact sheet: “The Highest Rates of Gun Homicides Are in Rural Counties” by Chandler Hall
The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
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