Death rate by guns in U.S. rises again in ’16

THE RATE OF American gun deaths increased for a second straight year in 2016, sparked by bumps in both suicides and homicides.

The Centers for Disease Control, in an annual report released Friday, said the overall firearm death rate in the United States stood last year at 12 deaths per 100,000 people.

In 2014, the number was 10 per 100,000 and the figure jumped to 11 in 100,000 for 2015. The numbers were generally static for the 15 years prior to the increase for 2015.

During the early 1990s, the firearm death rate stood at 15 per 100,000.

Officials say roughly two in three gun deaths are suicides, with the number of self-inflicted deaths increasing in recent years — although it was offset by the national decline in homicides.

The latest figures show the number of gun homicides is no longer receding. In 2016, according to FBI statistics, gun murders increased to about 11,000 from 9,600 one year earlier.

The rise in Chicago’s murder rate was a factor in the figures: There were 762 homicides in 2016, compared with 480 a year earlier.

Overall, there were more than 38,000 gun deaths nationally in 2016, according to the CDC. One year earlier, the number was 36,000 and the figures stayed steady at about 33,500 between 2011-14.

The CDC also said the death rate for drug overdoses increased dramatically in 2016, from 16 per 100,000 in 2015 to 20 per 100,000 last year.

Deaths by cancer and heart disease were both on the decline.