Gun Killings Higher for Young Men

(June 27, 2008) - Across the country many law enforcement agencies tout declining or stable homicide rates. Unfortunately, those numbers hide the fact that gun-related homicide among young men rose sharply in the United States in recent years.

A new study found that for the first half of this decade homicide involving firearms increased 31 percent among black men ages 25 to 44 and 12 percent among white men of the same age. The study is published in Online First edition of the Journal of Urban Health.

"The recent flatness of the U.S. homicide rate obscures the large increases in firearm death among males ages 25-44, especially black males," said Susan Baker, MPH, co-author of the study.

According to the study, the overall homicide rate remained between 6.0 and 6.1 deaths per 100,000 from 1999 to 2005, except for an increase in 2001 attributed to the terrorist attacks of September 11. The researchers found significant increases in the rate of firearm homicide for white males ages 25 to 34 and for black males ages 25 to 44.

The increase in firearm homicide for males age 25 to 44 was not distributed evenly throughout the country. The most significant increases occurred in Alabama, California, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. The other states did not see significant change. Additionally, most of the increases occurred in and around large metropolitan areas.

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