Latest MSDH report card shows Mississippi continues to lead nation in firearm mortality rate

BILOXI, Miss. (WXXV) — Mississippi has seen improvement in several public health areas that have plagued the state in the past, but it also continues its battle with a newer challenge — firearm-related deaths.

“The state has… it has a pretty prevalent gun culture,” Lieutenant Candace Young of the Biloxi Police Department said.

According to the Mississippi State Department of Health’s latest report card and the CDC, the Magnolia State leads the nation with a firearm mortality rate of 28.1 deaths per 100,000 people. That rate is 116% higher than the national average and takes into account homicides, suicides and accidental shootings.

“Suicides have just recently started to overtake homicides as far as gun deaths go,” Young explained. “The latest statistics that I’ve read are somewhere between 55 and 58% of gun deaths are suicide-related.”

In many cases, high gun death rates relating to crimes are typically not centered around major cities. Data from AmericanProgress.org shows that 11 of the 20 US counties with the highest rates of gun homicides are rural. Eight counties listed, including four of the top five, are Mississippi counties.

“We have much more lenient gun laws here, so it could just be a matter of there are more guns here than there are in other places,” Young said. “We, [when] compared to maybe some other states too, don’t necessarily have the mental health infrastructure in the state to maybe combat some issues.”

In South Mississippi’s case, each of the six Coastal counties have lower gun death rates than the state, though they are still higher than the national average. Data from 2020 to 2024 indicates that only Hancock County came within four points of the state average, with a rate of 27.5 deaths per 100,000 people. Additionally, in all six counties, suicides made up the majority of gun-related deaths.

Though its impossible to eradicate the problem completely, Young believes that the first step in reducing gun-related deaths is teaching responsible gun ownership.

“It’s important to understand that when you own a firearm, you have a weapon that could take somebody’s life, and to treat that with the respect and the responsibility that warrants.”