Preventing Injury and Deaths from Firearms

Firearm injury and deaths are a public health issue.

Firearm violence can include guns used in self-harm or violence between two people or among groups of people. However, firearm violence prevention does not only focus on guns – it focuses on the reasons for the violence. A public health approach to firearm prevention can include, but is not limited to:

• Improving and supporting mental health
• Increasing resiliency and positive relationship skills
• Increasing economic opportunities
• Solidifying and increasing awareness and access to a positive life trajectory
• Increasing hope
• Increasing community connectedness
• Creating a built environment that promotes connection and decreases unsafe spaces

The public health community has an opportunity to prevent firearm violence. Ensuring people have what they need to thrive can help reduce the causes of firearm violence (e.g., firearms used for self-harm, safety, power, or retaliation). 

Preventing violence starts where we live, work, and play. Addressing the causes of violence means looking at employment opportunities and conditions, transportation, safety, housing quality and affordability, education, and access to food and health care.

Community violence prevention can take place in communities, hospitals, schools, faith-based spaces, and recreation centers. MDH and partners are implementing strategies based on evidence that can prevent violence with firearms and address related trauma.

Firearm violence in Minnesota

More and more Minnesotans are dying from firearm homicides and suicides each year.

• Firearm homicides in Minnesota were 148% higher in 2021 than in 2018 (164 and 66, respectively).
• From 2015-2020, firearms were used in 45% of suicide deaths, 65% of homicide deaths and 54% of inter-personal violence homicide deaths in Minnesota.

Learn more about intentional and unintentional firearm deaths in Minnesota: Minnesota Violence Death Reporting System (MNVDRS) Dashboard.

Firearm violence impacts communities

Firearm violence affects some communities more than others. Firearms are often involved in suicides in Minnesota. From 2018-222, 1,855 Minnesotans died from firearm suicide, representing 46.4% of all suicide deaths. White males accounted for 1,532, or 82.5%, of firearm suicide deaths in that timeframe. In addition, rates of firearm suicide are about twice as high in rural counties as urban counties.

A suicide death can have profound impact on families and communities. When a person dies by suicide, their surviving family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and community members may feel a sense of shock and prolonged grief, and experience depression, anxiety, or thoughts of suicide themselves. 

Discriminatory and racist policies have made it harder for Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color to access well-paying jobs, generational wealth, safe housing, quality education, and health care, including for mental health. Structural disadvantages such as these, along with historic and current oppression through racism and discriminatory policies, impact trust in institutions and may lead to possession of firearms to increase feelings of safety. Learn more about the impact of gun violence on historically marginalized communities at Everytown Research & Policy. 

Impacts of firearm violence include but are not limited to death, physical injury, substantial mental health challenges, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), increased trauma responses, massive heath care costs, loss of productive years, loss of economic productivity, loss of community safety, and loss of community connection.

Resources

Firearm safety in Minnesota

• For more information on firearm safety and storage, visit the Minnesota Department of Safety: Make Minnesota Safe and Secure.
• Know about Minnesota’s red flag law. Visit Minnesota Department of Public Safety: Extreme Risk Protection Orders.

Public health resources

• Association of State and Territorial Health Officials: A Roadmap for Using a Public Health Approach to Prevent Firearm Injury
• APHA: Gun Violence
• CDC: Firearm Violence Prevention

If you or a loved one are experiencing an emotional emergency or just need to talk, call or text 988 to the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If you need immediate medical help, call 911.