American Indian and Alaska Native communities experience disproportionate rates of lethal gun violence compared to other racial groups, according to a new Violence Policy Center study analyzing 2023 federal data. These disparities highlight a public health crisis that rarely receives adequate national attention.
In 2023, there were 553 reported gun deaths among the AI/AN population, including 246 homicides and 260 suicides. Both firearm homicide and suicide rates in this community increased substantially between 2018 and 2022 before decreasing slightly in 2023. Males accounted for nearly 80 percent of homicide victims and 86 percent of firearm suicide victims.
The AI/AN population has maintained the second highest rates of homicide and firearm homicide in the nation since 2018, surpassed only by the Black population. In 2023, members of AI/AN communities were twice as likely to die by homicide or firearm homicide compared to white Americans. Overall suicide rates and firearm suicide rates in the AI/AN population also remain the second highest nationally, exceeded only by white populations.
Since 2015, AI/AN females killed by males have represented the second highest rate in the nation. However, the actual number is likely undercounted due to the ongoing tragedy of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, with experts believing numerous deaths remain unreported or misclassified.
According to Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, the AI/AN population faces a continuing crisis of lethal gun violence that outside of impacted communities rarely receives the attention it demands.
See: “American Indian/Alaska Native Community Disproportionately Impacted by Gun Death New VPC Study Reveals” (December 3, 2025)
