Gun violence in North Carolina is moving in two directions at once. A fresh statewide analysis finds firearm homicides trending down from their pandemic-era peak, while firearm suicides keep ticking up, threatening to erase some of the gains in overall gun-death reductions. The data, which run through the first half of 2025, show a patchwork of outcomes across counties, pushing officials to balance street-level violence-intervention work with more robust suicide-prevention efforts.
The numbers come from the N.C. Criminal Justice Analysis Center and were presented to the governor’s crime commission to guide upcoming grant decisions, according to the News & Observer. The commission is looking at county-by-county counts, racial disparities and trend lines as it decides where to steer limited public-safety funding.
Public-Health Data Show Suicides Climbing
State public-health surveillance shows firearm suicides rising year over year through 2023 and accounting for most gun deaths in the state. The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services reports that North Carolina residents suffered 1,767 firearm-related deaths in 2023, with suicides making up about 56 percent of that total.
Health officials say the steady growth in self-inflicted firearm deaths complicates North Carolina’s violence-prevention strategy. The risk factors that drive suicide, such as easy access to lethal means, gaps in mental-health care and social isolation, do not always match the conditions that fuel shootings between people, so one-size-fits-all approaches rarely work.
State Analysis: Homicides Fell, Rural Counties Worst Hit
According to the News & Observer, CJAC’s analysis shows there were 3,393 firearm homicides in North Carolina from 2020 through 2024, with homicide counts dropping roughly 29 percent from 2021 through June 2025. Even with that drop, firearms were still involved in more than three-quarters of all homicides in that span.
The report also undercuts the notion that gun violence is purely an urban problem. Many of the highest firearm-death rates were found in rural counties rather than only in the state’s big cities. Caroline Farmer, who helped produce the report, told the paper that this publication “was the first time, but it will not be the last time,” signaling that officials expect to keep updating and using the data. Local prevention leaders cited gun lock distribution and targeted outreach as key pieces of a layered response.
Who Is Most Affected
Researchers and public-health advocates stress that the burden of firearm harm is far from evenly shared. The Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions reports that young men, especially non-Hispanic Black males, along with residents in certain rural areas, face the highest rates of firearm death. The group also finds that firearms are increasingly a leading cause of death among children and teens in North Carolina.
Legal Tools and Prevention
Policy choices shape how much room the state has to act. North Carolina does not have a statewide extreme risk protection order, often called a red-flag law, which supporters say can help head off suicides and some mass-shooting threats, according to Everytown Research & Policy. At the same time, state materials note that many adults still store firearms loaded or unlocked at home.
The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services highlights safe-storage equipment, crisis supports such as the 988 Lifeline and community-based mental-health services as central to suicide prevention. Officials say the CJAC report will guide how the governor’s crime commission awards grants in the coming months, and they argue the real challenge will be coordinating investments that target shootings with those aimed at preventing suicide. In practical terms, that means pairing place-based violence-intervention programs with suicide-prevention outreach, widespread lock distribution and expanded behavioral-health access.
