Firearm injuries are down 12% and homicides have decreased by nearly 9% in Virginia over the past five years, but suicides using firearms are on the rise, according to data the Virginia Department of Health presented Wednesday.
Members of the Virginia State Crime Commission gathered in Richmond to hear from department officials and Virginia State Police on data related to gun violence.
Firearm injuries that were recorded in emergency departments in the state decreased 12% from 2020 to 2024, said Lauren Yerkes, senior epidemiologist for injury and violence with the Department of Health. Injuries peaked in 2021, when 2,818 firearm-related injuries were treated in emergency rooms.
Hospitalization from gunshot wounds decreased, as well. About 70% of hospitalized patients were Black Virginians, and on average, about 9% of people who were hospitalized for their gunshot wounds died at the hospital. Yerkes said that young adults and men dominate injuries and hospitalizations across the state. Over the past five years, four in five emergency room visits from gunshot wounds were by men. More than half of visits were patients aged 15 to 34.
In these five years, the cost of these injuries and hospitalizations to patients in Virginia was $737 million, or about $148 million per year.
In addition to injury statistics, Yerkes said the department polled Virginians for other aspects of gun ownership. In 2023, when the survey took place, about half of the Virginians polled said they have at least one firearm in their home that is unlocked and loaded. Among high school students, 15% said they could access and use a firearm at home without parent permission within 10 minutes, and 3% of students said they had carried a firearm not used for hunting or sport within the past year.
As for gun deaths, Virginia remains on par with the national average. About two-thirds of gun deaths were suicides, and more than half of the homicides across the states were committed with a gun. In 2020, the state’s Office of the Medical Examiner reports 710 deaths by suicide using firearms. In 2024, 746 Virginians died by suicide using a firearm. Ryan Diduk-Smith, director of the division of death prevention at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, broke down demographics in both categories. She said white men were significantly more likely to die by suicide using a gun, and Black men were more likely to be victims of homicides using firearms.
For suicides, Virginia Beach ranked second in the state for the number of people who died using a firearm, with an average of 38 people each year. However, taking population into account, the city did not rank among the highest firearm suicide rates in that time.
For homicides, several Hampton Roads cities ranked among the highest number of firearm homicides in the state, but experts on Wednesday credited much of that to the region having higher populations. Portsmouth, however, ranked second in the rate of homicides using firearms. According to the data, the city had about 35 firearm homicides per 100,000 people.
Mark Fero, director of crime-related initiatives at the Office of the Attorney General, said that intervention and prevention were primary goals for Operation Ceasefire, an initiative to reduce violent crime in cities across the state. Several Hampton Roads cities are under the operation, including Norfolk, Hampton, Newport News, Portsmouth and Chesapeake. He added that many Ceasefire cities, like Hampton, Norfolk and Chesapeake, have made significant improvement in the amount of violent crime and homicides that have been committed since 2021.
“That’s impressive, and it’s a testament to the leadership of (state leaders) here at the top, but also to all of those on the front lines in the communities,” Fero said.
Lori Haas, advocacy manager for the at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, said during public comment that while she thinks the Virginia General Assembly has done a lot to enact policy to reduce injury and death, more could be done to protect Virginians. Haas specifically noted Connecticut’s firearm purchaser licensing laws, which require prospective firearm purchasers to first obtain a license. The center reports that suicides using firearms in Connecticut dropped by a third after the law was put into place.
“The data presented today shows a trend down, (and) we’re very grateful for that trend. Over a 10-year period, gun deaths in the commonwealth have gone up 34%,” Haas said. “What we saw nationally, in many jurisdictions, in many states, was a rise in firearm homicides and suicides in the pandemic years. So if you’re using five years to compare, there has been a drop off, but we’re still not anywhere near where we were, say, in 2014. The increase over the time has been substantial and notable.”
Eliza Noe, eliza.noe@virginiamedia.com
