Gunfire incidents, ranging from homicides and suicides to accidents and other incidents, accounted for more than 45,200 deaths in the United States in 2020. This number was up about 13.9% from a year earlier. The national gun death rate in 2020 was 13.7 deaths per 100,000 population as compared to a rate of 12.1 deaths per 100,000 population the prior year.  The twelve-state Southeastern U.S. totaled 15,457 deaths by gunfire in 2020. At 18.1 gunfire deaths per 100,000 population in 2020, the region's gun death rate was about 32% higher than the national average.  In fact, six Southeastern states recorded a gun death rate in 2020 that was more than 50% above the national average.  A deeper inspection of 2020 data from the National Center for Health Statistics provides the following details about gun death rates in the Southeastern U.S.:

Gun Death Rates in the Southeastern U.S.

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Alabama	1,141	4,921,532	23.2
Arkansas	673	3,030,522	22.2
Florida	3,041	21,733,312	14.0
Georgia	1,897	10,710,017	17.7
Kentucky	902	4,477,251	20.1
Louisiana	1,183	4,645,318	25.5
Mississippi	818	2,966,786	27.6
North Carolina	1,699	10,600,823	16.0
South Carolina	1,131	5,218,040	21.7
Tennessee	1,473	6,886,834	21.4
Virginia	1,174	8,590,563	13.7
West Virginia	325	1,784,787	18.2
Region	15,457	85,565,785	18.1
U.S. Totals	45,222	329,484,123	13.7

(*) number of gun deaths per 100,000 population

Report Period: 2020

Source: CDC Wonder. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death 1999-2020 on CDC WONDER Online Database, released in 2021. Data are from the Multiple Cause of Death Files, 1999-2020, as compiled from data provided by the 57 vital statistics jurisdictions through the Vital Statistics Cooperative Program. Accessed on September 24, 2022