Statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on CDC Report Showing Reduction of Gun Homicides in 2022

Today, the CDC released a new report showing that the firearm homicide rate went down in 2022. This is meaningful progress for the American people: gun homicides are declining for the first time since sharply increasing from 2019 to 2020. It is also an encouraging sign that President Biden’s historic actions to address our nation’s gun violence epidemic are helping save lives. Yet, it’s not nearly enough at a time when guns are the leading killer of kids and at epidemic levels. President Biden continues to call on Congress to enact commonsense, meaningful reforms including banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, and enacting universal background checks that save lives.
 
Too many families have an empty seat at their dinner table and too many communities have been torn apart because of gun violence. Though gun violence impacts all communities, it does not do so equally. This report makes clear that communities of color are especially at risk of facing this senseless violence. Black Americans continue to be disproportionately killed by gun homicides, with a rate more than four times higher than that of the general population.
 
President Biden has taken critical action to reduce gun violence in our country, including by signing into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the most significant gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, and taking more meaningful executive action than any other president. But he has said that the progress we’ve made so far is not nearly enough. That’s why, just last month, he established the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to accelerate his work to reduce gun crime and other forms of gun violence. Through this office, the President will continue to reduce gun violence by implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and already-announced executive actions to reduce gun crime and other forms of gun violence, identifying new executive actions, expanding the coalition of partners to advance more state action, and improving support for communities and individuals impacted by gun violence. Most recently, the Justice Department announced $4.4 billion in funding to help communities reduce gun crime and other forms of violent crime and make our communities safer.
 
Our work is not done until every American is able to live free from the threat of gun violence.
 
View the CDC’s “Firearm Homicide Rates by Ethnicity and Race 2019-2022”  report released today here.

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