Firearm Deaths in the Southwestern U.S.

In calendar year 2019 there were more than 39,700 firearm deaths in the United States, or about 12.1 firearm deaths per 100,000 population.  While basically flat during the first decade of this century, the firearms death rate in the U.S. jumped sharply during the second decade. By 2019 the number of firearms-caused deaths per 100,000 population had increased almost 19% from where it stood in 2009.  The four-state Southwestern U.S. region, already a region with a higher firearms death rate than most regions of the country, likewise saw its firearms death rate surge from 11.9 deaths per 100,000 population in 2009 to 14.2 firearm deaths per 100,000 population in 2019.  Only two regions of the country, the Southeast and the Rocky Mountain states, had a higher firearms death rate in 2019 than did the Southwestern U.S.  An examination of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics, reveals the following about firearm deaths in the Southwestern U.S.:

Firearm Deaths in the Southwestern U.S.

State/Deaths	1999	2009	2019
AZ	822	856	1,136
NM	290	299	471
OK	509	533	737
TX	2,117	2,691	3,683
Region	3,738	4,379	6,027
U.S.	28,874	31,347	39,707
State/Death Rate*	1999	2009	2019
AZ	16.4	13.5	15.6
NM	16.0	14.7	22.5
OK	14.8	14.3	18.6
TX	10.3	10.9	12.7
Region	12.1	11.9	14.2
U.S.	10.3	10.2	12.1

(*) number of firearm-caused deaths per 100,000 population

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2019 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2020. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2019, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on June 2, 2021