Total Firearms Deaths - 2011

According to data released ny the Office of the Connecticut Medical Examiner, firearms deaths in Connecticut in 2011 reached a total of 216: 102 homicides and 114 suicides.

The homicides affected mostly minorities: 70 victims (68.6%) were African American and 16 (15.7%) were Latino.

The suicide data was very different as Caucasians accounted for 92.1% of the 114 victims.

93 of the homicide victims were male while 9 were female. Of the suicide victims, 108 were male and 6 female. (See Chart for Data).

Firearm Homicides Increasing in Connecticut

Connecticut homicides increased again in 2011. We had 102 firearm homicides in 2011. The total compares with 101 in 2010, 76 in 2009, and 88 in 2008.

(For firearm totals by city, see chart.)

Gun Ownership Decreasing

Gun ownership in the United States is decreasing. Although the gun lobby would like us to believe that's not the case, the facts are irrefutable. According to a new report by the Violence Policy Center analyzing nearly four decades of survey data from the independent General Social Survey (GSS) conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago, household gun ownership peaked in 1977, when 54 percent of American households had a gun. In 2010 only 32.3 percent of American households had a gun--the lowest level ever recorded by the GSS. The reality is that contrary to the marketing claims of the firearms industry and gun lobby, household gun ownership continues to shrink while an increasing majority of American households are gun-free.