Overall gun deaths decreased — againLast year’s total of 42,348 gun deaths represents a 13 percent decrease from the all-time high of nearly 49,000 gun deaths in 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic fueled a historic surge in violence. Gun suicides were up for the seventh year in a rowThe CDC reported more than 28,000 gun suicides in 2025, a slight increase over the year before, when there were nearly 27,600 gun suicides. There were regional disparitiesThe South accounted for nearly half of U.S. gun deaths last year, while the Northeast — with slightly more than 3,600 gun deaths — had the fewest. Gun deaths among children decreasedGun deaths among people under 18 fell 5 percent, from 2,227 in 2024 to 2,108 last year. Even though overall gun deaths among young people fell, gun suicides rose 15 percent.