134 45,222
gun laws on the books across 50 states. Americans killed by guns in 2024.
One Hundred Years of The Trigger
A century of American homicide. The laws that came before it, after it, and never at all. The data does not take sides. It keeps score.
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One Hundred Years of

The Trigger

The gun homicide rate peaked at 10.2 per 100,000 in 1980. It fell to 4.7 in 2024. Most people believe the opposite. The data corrects them before anything else happens.
Report   05 / 10
Window   1900 — 2024
States   50
Laws tracked   134
Peak homicide rate
10.2per 100k
1980 · all-time high
2024 rate
4.7per 100k
54% decline from peak
Gun deaths · 2024
45,222
homicide + suicide + accident
State laws tracked
134
14 categories · 50 states
Law change · 1991–2016
+57%
net increase in state provisions
Pandemic surge
+30%
2019 → 2020 · largest recorded
Fig. 01 · The arc
Homicide rate per 100,000 · 1900–2024

A century of American homicide as a single line.

Every peak has a name. Prohibition. The crack epidemic. The pandemic. Every trough has a predecessor — a law, a policy, a demographic shift. The line does not editorialize. It records.

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Major federal gun legislation
• 1934 National Firearms Act • 1938 Federal Firearms Act • 1968 Gun Control Act • 1986 Firearm Owners Protection Act • 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act • 1994 Assault Weapons Ban (expired 2004) • 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act
The counterintuitive finding
PEAK RATE 1980 10.2per 100k 2024 RATE 2024 4.7per 100k CHANGE −54%
Most visitors arrive believing gun homicide has been climbing for decades. The chart corrects them before anything else happens. The peak was 1980. The decline since then is one of the largest sustained decreases in any category of violent death in American history.