Public safety

Firearm death rate by president

Name: Firearm death rate, United States
Creator: CDC National Center for Health Statistics
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Deaths from firearm injuries of any intent (suicide, homicide, accident), age-adjusted, per 100,000 people. From death certificates; final data starts in 1999. Roughly half are suicides. Points after the last final year are provisional rolling 12-month rates from the CDC's quarterly estimates, shown dashed.

12.4 per 100k latest, 12 mo. to Jun 2025 (provisional)

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, via CDC WONDER. Annual data, fetched Oct 15, 2026.

Since 1999, the firearm death rate ranged from 10.0 per 100k in 2004 under George W. Bush to 14.6 per 100k in 2021 under Joe Biden. Of the 4 completed terms with data, the firearm death rate rose fastest under Donald Trump (1st term), at +0.45 per 100k/yr against +0.33 per 100k/yr in the four years before, and fell fastest under Joe Biden, at −0.20 per 100k/yr against +0.45 per 100k/yr in the four years before. So far under Donald Trump (2nd term), it has gone from 12.8 per 100k in 2024 to 12.4 per 100k in 12 mo. to Jun 2025.

By presidential term

Firearm death rate, term by term: every term lined up from inauguration on one chart.

Value at the last full period before inauguration and at the end of the term, with the yearly rate of change. The second column is the rate of change over the four years before the term: the trend they inherited. Remember the lag: a term's first year mostly reflects the previous one's policies.

President	During term	4 years before
Donald Trump (2nd term) 2025–now	12.8 per 100k → 12.4 per 100k −0.80 per 100k/yr · through Jun 2025	−0.20 per 100k/yr
Joe Biden 2021–2025	13.6 per 100k → 12.8 per 100k −0.20 per 100k/yr	+0.45 per 100k/yr
Donald Trump (1st term) 2017–2021	11.8 per 100k → 13.6 per 100k +0.45 per 100k/yr	+0.33 per 100k/yr
Barack Obama 2009–2017	10.3 per 100k → 11.8 per 100k +0.19 per 100k/yr	+0.08 per 100k/yr
George W. Bush 2001–2009	10.2 per 100k → 10.3 per 100k +0.01 per 100k/yr	—
Bill Clinton 1993–2001	no data	no data
George H. W. Bush 1989–1993	no data	no data
Ronald Reagan 1981–1989	no data	no data
Jimmy Carter 1977–1981	no data	no data

More public safety indicators

Events that bear on this indicator

Jun 25, 2022 Law
Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. Enhanced background checks for buyers under 21, funding for state red-flag laws and mental health services.
Mar 11, 2020 Shock
COVID-19 declared a pandemic. Lockdowns push unemployment to 14.8% in April 2020.
Sep 13, 2004 Law
Federal assault weapons ban expires. The 1994 ban lapses after Congress declines to renew it.