Gun Violence Against the
Transgender Community

In 2023 we continue to confront the reality that gun violence is a threat to trans people. Everytown began tracking homicides of transgender or gender nonconforming victims in 2017 to highlight the prevalence of firearms and demonstrate that gun violence is a queer issue. The story that unfolded from 2017 to 2022, in which 224 trans people were violently killed, underscores the role firearms play—73 percent of these deaths were with a gun¹. This violence against trans people reflects a persisting trend that peaked in 2021, when 59 trans and gender-nonconforming people were violently killed². In the years since, we have continued to chronicle violence that affects people on the basis of qualities core to one’s identity: race, gender, and age.

Two in three gun homicides of trans or gender-nonconforming people were of Black trans women, and more than one in 10 gun homicides targeted trans Latinas³. Young trans people are also disproportionately impacted: 58 percent of trans homicide victims were under the age of 30, in the earliest stages of their adult lives when they were killed⁴. As a chilling epilogue, almost one-third of these homicides remain unsolved, leaving families without closure⁵.

The factors affecting violence against trans people are varied, but the risk for violence is higher than in cisgender populations. Transgender people are nearly three times as likely to be victims of violence as cisgender people⁶. More than half of transgender people responding to the 2015 US Transgender Survey experienced intimate partner violence in their lifetime, and for nearly half of all survey respondents, this violence came in the form of coercive control, such as restricted access to finances, transportation or even healthcare⁷. Everytown’s tracking showed that intimate partner and family violence affects trans people—at least 17 percent of violent deaths of trans people between 2017 and 2022 were at the hands of an intimate partner or family member. Two-thirds of these deaths were with a gun⁸.

Violence against trans people doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Geographically, this violence is not evenly spread across the United States. 48 percent of gun homicides of trans people occurred in the South—a region with some of the nation’s weakest gun laws⁹. Queer communities have been the subject of targeted attacks in the media, at public events, and even in state legislatures. When states weaken gun safety laws at the same time, hate is far more lethal. Each year, over 25,000 hate crimes in the United States involve firearms, a startling 69 incidents daily¹⁰—taking a harrowing toll on lives shaped by the noxious mix of prejudice and weaponry. As we honor the lives taken in 2023, we must also work to push back against both dangerous gun laws and legislation that discriminates against transgender individuals.