Gun-related incidents, including homicides, suicides, accidents, and other shooting incidents, accounted for over 45,200 deaths in the United States in 2020. This number was up nearly 13.9% from a year earlier. The 2020 U.S. gun death rate of 13.7 deaths per 100,000 population compared to a rate of 12.1 deaths per 100,000 population in 2019.  The four-state Southwestern U.S. recorded 6,734 gun-related deaths in 2020, or about 15.7 gun-related deaths per 100,000 population. As such, in 2020 the region's gun death rate was 14.6% higher than the national average, as every state in the region registered a gun death rate in 2020 that was above the national average.  Further inspection of 2020 data from the National Center for Health Statistics details the following about gun death rates in the Southwestern U.S.:

Gun Death Rates in the Southwestern U.S.

State	Deaths	Population	Death Rate*
Arizona	1,265	7,421,401	17.0
New Mexico	479	2,106,319	22.7
Oklahoma	826	3,980,783	20.7
Texas	4,164	29,360,759	14.2
Region	6,734	42,869,262	15.7
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 12, 2022