Gun violence was the leading cause of death among young Black men in 2012

(www.BlackmansStreet.To-day) – Homicide by gun was the leading cause of death in 2012 among African-American teenagers and young Black-male adults between the ages of 15 to 34, although the risk of homicide is concentrated throughout much of the life span of all Black men, according to a study scheduled for release next year by the University of California at Davis.

The study, “The Epidemiology of Firearm Violence in the Twenty-First Century United States,” noted, however, the risk of suicide by gun is concentrated among white men and the disparity increases with age.

In 2012, there were more suicides by gun than there were homicides by gun. Two years ago, there were 32,288 deaths from gun violence in the U.S., including 11,622 homicides and 20,666 suicides among African Americans, Hispanics and whites.

“Over the past 30 years, firearm suicides have exceeded homicides even when homicide rates were at their highest in the late 1980s and early 1990s,” said the study, which was published online in the Annual Review of Public Health.

“But since 2006, the gap between the two has been widening with firearm homicides decreasing and suicides increasing.”

From 2003 to 2012, 313,045 individuals died from gun-related injuries in the United States, a number larger than all of the U.S. combat fatalities in World War II and all of the other wars in the nation’s history, according to the study.

This article originally published in the December 29, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.