In California, nearly one out of every two deaths by firearm is a suicide. And for the U.S. as a whole, firearms are the leading cause of death for kids and teens, disproportionately impacting people of color.
Access to daily, timely and accurate data is crucial to helping combat the gun violence epidemic and amplifying coverage of this public health crisis. That’s where the Hope and Heal Fund — a California-based philanthropic organization taking a public health approach to preventing gun violence — comes in.
With the goal of better contextualizing and visualizing current firearm suicides in California, the fund created interactive GIS maps using data on firearm homicides and suicides from 2016 to 2022. Then, they built the two maps based on county-level data from the California Department of Public Health.
“This new map comparing firearm suicides and homicides by county sets out to provide a more complete picture of local deaths,” according to the fund’s website. “Historically, homicides and suicides have been evaluated separately and in silos. encompass a more holistic approach to preventing firearm deaths.”
Several news outlets in California have reported on the Fund’s findings. For example, The Mercury News in San Jose focused on how several of the state’s rural counties are disproportionately impacted by gun violence. KVPR, the NPR affiliate in California’s Central Valley, used the Hope and Heal Fund’s map for a story about the high murder rate in their region.
Analyzing the findings
The GIS maps allowed Hope and Heal Fund to draw several findings, including:
- Fourteen counties have both firearm homicide and suicide rates above the state average.
- Twelve counties have a higher firearm suicide rate than the state average but a lower firearm homicide rate.
- Five counties have lower firearm suicide rates than the state average but have higher rates of firearm homicide.
- Five counties have both lower firearm suicide and homicide rates than the state average.
- Overall, rural counties have fairly high rates of firearm suicide. But it’s not just a rural problem, the fund notes. Five counties with large cities have firearm suicide rates above the state average.
- Some rural counties have both high firearm homicide and suicide rates.
- The fund also said counties with large urban centers aren’t the only ones suffering from firearm homicides — nearly two-thirds of all California firearm homicides occur outside the 10 most populated cities.
Hope and Heal also created these interactive maps to help identify more firearm prevention strategies for the communities most impacted by gun violence.
“This new visualization method enables local organizations to better target prevention strategies and showcase their community stories, highlighting effective solutions.”
Additional resources
- The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research supports rigorous research that broadens agreement on the facts associated with gun policy and promotes the development of fair and effective policies on preventing gun violence.
- University of California Davis Violence Prevention Research Program focuses on research and policy development, particularly on firearm violence and the causes, consequences and prevention of violence. The program helped to develop the public health approach to violence in the 1980s and continues to apply that framework in their research. The program also explores the connection between violence, substance abuse and mental illness.
- Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions is the merger of two leading research institutions: the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence. The collaboration brings together respected gun violence researchers and prevention advocates to examine and promote policies and programs to improve community safety.
