Shooting deaths in the United States hit a historic high in 2021 after rising the prior year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That trend has since reversed, with numbers falling each year through 2024, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
But some U.S. cities, including Cleveland, are outliers. Compared with 2021, shooting deaths in Cleveland were higher in 2023 — the most recent year for which city-provided data are available.
The city recorded 45.4 firearm deaths per 100,000 residents in 2023, a five-year high, according to city data. The majority of firearm deaths were homicides (76%), while 22% were suicides.
There's no definitive explanation for why some parts of the region have seen increasing gun violence. But areas with higher poverty rates record higher firearm homicide and suicide rates, according to the CDC. Both Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have higher-than-average poverty rates.
Urban hot spots
Data from the Gun Violence Archive show Northeast Ohio's largest cities remain the region's hottest spots for gun violence, though some of those cities saw slight improvement.
For example, shootings in Canton declined by more than 50% and just under 50% in Lorain between 2019-23 Gun Violence Archive data. But shootings in Warren and Mansfield increased during that timeframe.
The City of Akron has also reported a drop in firearm offenses. City officials said there was a 33% decrease in the number of shootings and shots fired calls from 2023 through October 2024 compared with the previous year. The city saw a decrease in shootings by 40 between 2019-23, according to Gun Violence Archive.
Statewide, there have been more than 17,300 firearm deaths in the last decade. Ohio currently ranked 26th in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's most recent state firearm mortality rankings, logging a 15.6 firearm death rate, which is nearly half Mississippi's nation-leading 29.6 rate.
Recent efforts to curb gun violence in Cleveland include U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's June 2024 announcement of the Cleveland-based Northeast Ohio Crime Gun Intelligence Center. The Center was tasked with tracking weapons used in violent crimes to disrupt and prevent future gun violence. Cleveland saw a dramatic drop in violent crime in 2024, according to city data.
"The strategy works," Steve Dettelbach, director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said at the time.
He said the Bureau's data showed that in the first half of 2024, Cleveland homicides with a firearm decreased by 33% compared with the same period in 2023.
"That's part of what our ability to, quote, 'follow the gun,' can help accomplish," Dettelbach said.
Racial disparities
In Ohio and across the U.S., people of color are disproportionately affected by gun violence, according to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Ohio had the 11th highest gun homicide rate and the eighth highest gun suicide rate among Black people in the country in 2022. Black Ohioans were 18 times more likely to die by gun homicide than their white counterparts, while Hispanic people were three times more likely, which is slightly above national rates, according to Johns Hopkins.
The national problem is particularly severe among youth. When it comes to youth gun violence by state, Ohio sat higher than the national average at a rate just over seven compared to the 6.7 average.
Black males between the ages of 15 and 34 make up 2% of Ohio's population, but accounted for 41% of all gun homicide deaths in 2022, Johns Hopkins found. For comparison, that was 1% less than the rate for Mississippi, which had the nation's worst firearm mortality rate that year.
The pandemic spike
Explanations vary for the spike in gun deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I think all the factors that disrupted our daily lives contributed to the underlying risk factors for violence," said Ari Davis, policy adviser at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions, during a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health podcast. "For example, not having access to social support within the community, being isolated, being worried about job stability—all these things can contribute to both gun suicides and homicides."
Davis added that fear and uncertainties amid the shifting social and political climate may have also contributed to the rise in gun violence during those years.
"We had the insurrection on the Capitol, we had a lot of protests and uprisings around racial justice, and a lot of people just felt insecure. Unfortunately, folks turned to purchasing guns, at record numbers. At the same time, we see this spike in violence," Davis said.
Since then, gun violence has dropped. National fatal firearm deaths declined 22% between 2021 and 2024, according to Gun Violence Archive.
