Black Americans Hit Hardest by Gun Violence: Survey
Julia Mueller, The Hill, April 11, 2023
Black Americans are hit hardest by gun violence in the U.S., according to a new survey that highlights stark racial differences in who is personally impacted by the issue.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, released Tuesday, found that Black adults were roughly twice as likely as white or Hispanic adults to report that they’ve had a family member killed by a gun, including by suicide, at 34 percent — compared to 17 and 18 percent of white and Hispanic adults.
About a third of Black and Hispanic adults together say they worry “daily” or “almost daily” that a family member could fall victim to gun violence, while just 10 percent of white adults report the same level of worry.
Seventeen percent of Black adults in the survey said they don’t feel “at all” safe in their neighborhoods, compared to 9 percent of Hispanic adults and just 2 percent of white adults.
The figures paint a bleak picture of how gun violence is impacting America. Fifty-four percent of Americans overall say they have or a family member has experienced a gun-related incident.
About one in five U.S. adults said they’ve been threatened with a gun, and roughly the same figure said a family member has been killed by a gun, including by suicide.
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