Report puts cost of local gun violence at $72 million

Santa Clara County incurs $72 million in costs associated with gun violence every year, according to a newly released report by the Department of Public Health.

The report, which investigated gun violence incidents going back to 2000, measured the impact on the county's medical and mental health infrastructure, emergency services and law enforcement. The data did not include costs associated with incarceration or to the private sector.

Much of the gun violence in the county are suicides, which account for 60% of the deaths over the last two decades. Thirty-four percent are from assaults or homicides, while the remaining 4% come from law enforcement interventions. Males make up 89% of all firearm deaths.

Geographically, gun violence in is most concentrated in East and South San Jose, as well as in Campbell. While firearms deaths have remained stable over the last decade, visits to the emergency room for nonfatal incidents have tripled.

The findings come as the county's supervisors look to rein in the proliferation of ghost guns and the Bay Area at large experiences alarming rates of gun violence.

In March, Supervisors Cindy Chavez and Otto Lee proposed an ordinance that would ban the possession of ghost guns, which law enforcement continues to seize in record numbers. Since 2015, the number of ghost guns examined by the county's crime lab has grown from just four to 293 last year, according to separate findings released in conjunction with the gun violence economic impact report.

“I requested the study to better understand the financial impacts of gun violence on our county and the numbers are staggering,” Chavez said in a statement. “I look forward to addressing the illegal firearms trade in our community.”

Santa Clara County has roughly 550,000 firearms, according to the report. The area has roughly 2 million residents. Between 2017 and last year, about 28,000 guns were registered annually.

The report comes as the Bay Area, the state and the country grapple with gun violence. In April, a shooting in downtown Sacramento left 10 people dead and another 12 injured. And at the end of the month, San Jose will commemorate one year since a shooting at a Valley Transportation Authority building where nine agency employees died.

SAN JOSE POLICE DEPARTMENT This is an Ar-15style rifle that police say was discarded by a suspect who shot at a man after a thwarted car theft in Willow Glen in San Jose on Dec. 14, 2020.