Firearm Fatalities Gap
About
The Firearm Fatalities Gap measures the ratio of firearm-related deaths among Black Americans to firearm-related deaths among White Americans in a county. Individuals from both Hispanic and non-Hispanic ethnicities are included. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2021, the highest firearm-related homicide rate was observed among non-Hispanic Black males, with a rate of around 52.9 deaths per 100,000 standard population 1. This rate is significantly higher compared to all other racial groups and more than 10 times higher than the rate of non-Hispanic White males 1. This highlights significant racial disparities in firearm-related homicide rates in the U.S.. Black Americans, particularly males, are disproportionately affected by firearm-related homicides compared to White Americans.
Why is the Firearm Fatalities Gap important to the Structural Racism and Discrimination (SRD) Index?
The Firearm Fatalities Gap highlights the disproportionate impact of gun violence on Black communities, deeply impacted by prejudice and historical laws and policies that widened the various socioeconomic disparities between the White privileged and the Black marginalized populations 2. According to the Giffords Law Center, in 2021, 15,290 Black people were killed by gun violence, the highest number on record 3. This disparity is not coincidental but reflects deep-rooted systemic inequalities. In a study, authors have found that firearm injury rates are highest in Philadelphia in historically redlined areas from the 1940s 4. Moreover, a state-level structural racism index showed a strong correlation with Black-White disparities in unarmed police shootings 5. These findings underscore how the Firearm Fatalities Gap is intertwined with multiple dimensions of structural racism, including residential segregation, economic inequalities, historical redlining practices, and disparities in access to resources 6. Understanding this gap is crucial for developing effective policies to address both gun violence and racial inequities in public health and safety 7.
What is the expected relation to Structural Racism and Discrimination?
A higher value of the Firearm Fatalities Gap between Black and White populations contributes to a higher value or score of the SRD Index.
How is the Firearm Fatalities Gap calculated?
We obtained data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER online database 8. The databases used are as follows: 1) National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 1999-2020, released in 2021, 2) National Vital Statistics System, Mortality: Compressed Mortality File 1999-2016, released in 2017, and 3) National Vital Statistics System, Mortality: Compressed Mortality File 1979-1998. Series 20, No. 2A, 2000 and CMF 1989-1998, Series 20, No. 2E, 2003. All data is publicly available.
For a stable trend of rates, we used cumulative data from five years for a given decadal year. For example, 2020 = 2016-2020; 2010 = 2006-2010; 2000 = 1996-2000; 1990 = 1986-1990. For the year 2000, data were available for 1996-1998 and 1999-2000. So the data from both files was used to get the total data for 1996-2000.
Data Source
Data
We used the following two variables at the county level.
| Variables* | Year | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Rate of Firearm-related Deaths per 100,000 Black Population | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | Number |
| Rate of Firearm-related Deaths per 100,000 White Population | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020 | Number |
* Individuals from both Hispanic and non-Hispanic ethnicities are included.
Methodology
We calculated the Firearm Fatalities Gap using a ratio formula:
$$
RPrBlWhFiDeath = \frac{RBlFiDeath}{RWhFiDeath}
$$
Where:
RPrBlWhFiDeath: Gap in firearm fatalities between Black and African American and White populations
RBlFiDeath = BlFiDeath / BlPop: Rate of firearm fatalities per 100,000 population for the Black or African American population
RWhFiDeath = WhFiDeath / WhPop: Rate of firearm fatalities per 100,000 population for the White population
Missing Data
Where data from the source was “suppressed,” i.e., when the number of deaths was less than 10, we imputed “5” for our analysis. Other missing values were filled using the median value of the adjacent neighbors. The adjacent neighbors were identified using the PolygonNeighbors tool in Python’s arcpy.analysis module 9. The adjacency is defined by any common boundary or vertex between two counties. After imputing missing data, we have 91 counties with no data in 2020, 78 counties with no data in 2010, and 2 counties with no data in 1990. There was no missing data in 2000.
References
1. QuickStats: Age-Adjusted Rates for Homicides, by Race/Ethnicity— United States, 1999–2015. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2017;66:839.
2. Woodard, N., Butler, J., Ghosh, D., Green, K. M., & Knott, C. L. (2024). The association between state-level structural racism and alcohol and tobacco use behaviors among a national probability sample of Black Americans. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 33(2), 261-269.
3. Giffords Law Center. (2024). Gun violence in Black communities.
4. Jacoby, S. F., Dong, B., Beard, J. H., Wiebe, D. J., & Morrison, C. N. (2018). The enduring impact of historical and structural racism on urban violence in Philadelphia. Social Science & Medicine, 199, 87-95.
5. Mesic, A., Franklin, L., Cansever, A., Potter, F., Sharma, A., Knopov, A., & Siegel, M. (2018). The relationship between structural racism and black-white disparities in fatal police shootings at the state level. Journal of the National Medical Association, 110(2), 106-116.
6. University of Michigan Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. (n.d.). Structural racism and youth firearm violence: Socioecological mechanisms and resilience.
7. Beard, J. H., Morrison, C. N., Jacoby, S. F., Dong, B., Smith, R., Sims, C. A., & Wiebe, D. J. (2017). Quantifying disparities in urban firearm violence by race and place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: a cartographic study. American journal of public health, 107(3), 371-373.
8. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. National Vital Statistics System, Mortality 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 at http://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html on Aug 3, 2024, 4:20:22 PM
9. Virtanen, P., Gommers, R., Burovski, E., Oliphant, T. E., Weckesser, W., Cournapeau, D., … & Feng, Y. (2021). scipy/scipy: SciPy 1.6. 0. Zenodo.