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Public‑health researchers: Oregon’s firearm deaths rising; suicides drive state totals
Summary
OHSU‑PSU epidemiologists told the Judiciary committees that firearm fatalities in Oregon are rising and are driven disproportionately by suicide, with rural areas, veterans and some communities of color carrying higher burdens.
Dr. Kathleen Carlson, an injury epidemiologist at the OHSU‑PSU School of Public Health and founding director of the Gun Violence Prevention Research Center, presented statewide data showing rising firearm fatalities and large disparities.
Carlson said the U.S. averaged just over 45,000 firearm fatalities per year in recent years and that nationally 56% of those deaths are suicides. In Oregon, by comparison, she reported that 77% of firearm deaths are suicides and that the state’s firearm death rate — about 14.8 per 100,000 — is roughly 7% higher than the national rate.
Carlson told committees that Oregon lost about 3,100 people to firearm fatalities in the five most recent years of available data and that the state averaged about 625 deaths per year. She said there were 18 mass‑shooting events in Oregon between 2019 and 2023 and that roughly 172 children died from firearm injuries during that five‑year span, more than half by suicide.
The presenter highlighted trends: a 40% overall increase in firearm fatalities over a 20‑plus year period, a 43% increase in firearm suicide and a 133% increase in firearm homicide nationally over the same span. Carlson also noted that rural regions of Oregon experienced 66% higher firearm suicide rates than non‑rural regions and that veterans in Oregon had markedly higher suicide rates than the general population in 2021.
Carlson emphasized lethal‑means safety: she said firearms are highly lethal and that separating people at risk from immediate access to firearms (through safe storage, waiting periods, ERPOs or other measures) can prevent deaths, because many attempts are impulsive and substitution to less lethal means substantially increases survival.
She also said nonfatal injuries are common: Oregon had nearly 5,000 emergency‑department visits for firearm injuries between 2018 and most of 2024, and per‑capita rates show rural and frontier counties with high burdens of nonfatal firearm injuries treated in emergency departments.
Carlson closed by offering her center’s assistance with data and research to inform policy and implementation.
