Hawaiʻi saw the steepest increase in gun fatalities of any state in the decade ending in 2023, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Gun deaths in the islands are rare, but increasing. The state, which has relatively strong gun laws, consistently ranks in the bottom five states for gun fatality rates. The national average in 2023 was about 14 gun-related fatalities per 100,000 people; Hawaiʻi’s rate was just 4.9. That year, only Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts had lower rates. 

On average, guns killed about 58 Hawaiʻi residents each year from 2014 to 2023, according to CDC data. That includes homicides and suicides.

But the death toll has been rising. In 2014, only 40 people were killed by guns in the entire state. 2023, the most recent year for which final data is available, saw 73 deaths — an 80% increase over 2014 and the highest number of fatalities in at least a decade.

In the same period, the death toll increased by about 40% nationwide.

About half of homicides in Hawaiʻi involved a gun, compared to more than three-quarters nationwide, according to CDC data analyzed by the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for measures to reduce gun violence.

Most Gun Deaths In Hawaiʻi Are Suicides

An average of about 40 people died by suicide involving a gun each year between 2018 and 2023. That’s more than double the number of gun-related homicides each year. 

Gun-related suicides increased by more than 70% from 2018 to 2023, according to the most comprehensive data available from the CDC. 

However, Hawaiʻi’s gun-related suicide rate is lower than the national average: 3.1 per 100,000 residents, compared to the national average of 7.6.  

Suicide by any means is the second highest cause of what the state Department of Health classifies as “fatal injuries” for Hawaiʻi residents. The highest is drug overdoses.

More people died by suicide between 2020 and 2024 than in a car crash, according to the health department.

Efforts To Reduce Gun Violence Have Faltered

Gun fatalities have increased despite Hawaiʻi’s strong gun laws, which include universal background checks and a ban on large-capacity magazines for pistols. 

The Giffords Law Center, a nonprofit advocating for stricter gun laws, gives the state an A- for gun control, surpassed by just a half-dozen states, including California, New York and Massachusetts. This year, lawmakers expanded requirements for gun owners to securely store their weapons. 

But they failed to pass several other measures this year, including the creation of a statewide Office of Gun Violence Prevention meant to improve data collection and reduce gun-related deaths. 

Efforts to reduce gun violence have been hindered by the state’s poor data collection. In 2020, lawmakers created the Gun Violence and Violent Crimes Commission after two Honolulu police officers were shot and killed. 

Housed under the attorney general’s office, the commission’s primary goal was to identify data that would inform firearm regulations and other strategies to reduce gun violence. 

From the beginning, the lack of data on gun violence was a problem. County police departments report gun-related statistics differently, which made it hard for commission members to understand the scope of gun-related injuries and fatalities.

“We just don’t have the data on it,” Commissioner Denise Konan, dean of the College of Social Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa, said at a 2022 meeting, more than a year after the commission was created. 

The commission has met just six times, most recently in January 2024. Its only legislative proposal has been to dissolve itself. That hasn’t happened, but it has no upcoming meetings on the calendar.

“Data Dive” is supported in part by the Will J. Reid Foundation.