Nevada consistently ranks in the top 10 among states that have the nation’s highest firearm death rates.
From 2006 through 2010, Nevada ranked from fifth to ninth in firearm death rates based on occurrences per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Included are homicides, suicides, accidents and shootings where intent was undetermined.
A closer look at CDC data from 1999 through 2010 shows that Nevada had slightly more firearm deaths, 4,611, than motor vehicle fatalities, 4,354. That’s substantially different than the national data, which showed 512,863 motor vehicle deaths versus 364,483 by firearms.
Nevada’s firearm death rate over that 12-year period, 16.24 per 100,000 residents, was 57.3 percent higher than the national rate of 10.32 per capita.
During that same period, Nevada had the 12th highest rate of firearm deaths suffered by children through age 19 at 4.54 per 100,000. That compared to a U.S. average of 3.64 per capita. Nevada also ranked ninth in child homicides by firearm at 2.89 per 100,000, compared to 2.34 per capita nationally.
As for child suicides by firearm, Nevada ranked 24th at 1.36 per 100,000 children, compared to a 1.02 rate nationally.
Suicides accounted for nearly twice as many firearm deaths as homicides in Clark County since 2003, separate data from the Clark County Coroner’s office shows.
From 2003 through 2012, with last year’s data based on preliminary numbers, there were 1,813 suicides by firearm versus 1,028 homicides by gun use. Part of this can be explained by the fact that there were far more suicides than homicides during that period.
With the exception of 2011, the number of suicides by firearm generally has been increasing in recent years while the number of homicides by gun has been declining. But the percentage of homicides by firearm over the 10-year period, 64.1, was higher than the percentage of suicides involving guns, 51.1.
