Gun Violence in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands Far Exceeds National Rates

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands experience some of the highest gun violence rates in the US, yet remain largely absent from national debate, according to giffords.org.

Shooting Rates in US Territories Among Highest in the Nation

One weekend, 18 people were shot across Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands — at least nine of them fatally. One shooting happened on a freeway. Another struck a community center, killing a 17-year-old and three others. Two weekends later, a shopping mall attack in the region left one dead and four injured; a second incident ended with the arrest of the gunman, who was charged with assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of an unlicensed firearm.

These are not exceptional cases. According to giffords.org, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands (USVI) routinely experience some of the highest levels of gun violence anywhere in the United States — violence that receives far less national attention than comparable bloodshed in major American cities.

A Nationwide Crisis, Concentrated in the Territories

Gun violence across the broader United States has intensified sharply in recent years. The firearm mortality rate rose nearly 18% over the past decade. Between 2015 and 2019, an average of 39,000 Americans died from gun violence each year. In 2020 alone, that figure surpassed 45,000 — the deadliest year for gun violence in decades. Projections for 2021 indicated the trend was continuing upward.

The US firearm mortality rate is already more than 11 times higher than that of other high-income countries. The country accounts for nearly 15% of all firearm deaths globally, despite representing just four percent of the world's population. Yet even within this national crisis, the five permanently inhabited US territories — Puerto Rico, the USVI, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and American Samoa — are largely absent from policy discussions.

Puerto Rico and the USVI: The Sharpest End

The disparity is stark. Puerto Rico's firearm mortality rate in 2018 — the most recent year for which data was available at the time of the report — was 1.7 times higher than the average across the 50 states. The USVI recorded a firearm homicide rate of 50 per 100,000 in 2020, a figure 8.5 times higher than the rate for the 50 states.

By contrast, the Pacific territories — Guam, CNMI, and American Samoa — appear to experience comparatively low rates of gun violence, based on available data.

Gun trafficking is a central driver of the crisis in Puerto Rico and the USVI. In 2020, the USVI ranked as the second leading importer of firearms recovered by law enforcement among all US states and territories. In Puerto Rico, only 13% of firearms recovered by law enforcement that year had originally been sold there. Across the 50 states, by comparison, an average of 66% of firearms recovered and traced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) were originally sold within the same state. The influx of illegally trafficked weapons has fueled homicide rates that outpace every one of the 50 states.

Data Gaps Deepen the Problem

One significant obstacle to addressing gun violence in these territories is the absence of reliable, consistent data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the primary federal source for firearm mortality statistics across the 50 states, does not publish equivalent data for the US territories. Researchers and policymakers are left to piece together figures from academic studies, territorial governments, and locally gathered records.

Funding constraints limit the capacity of both Puerto Rico and the USVI to collect comprehensive mortality data. Definitions of mortality categories also vary across sources. Hurricane Maria in 2017 further disrupted both territories' data-collection systems, leaving gaps that have not been fully closed.

To compensate, the giffords.org research team conducted interviews with current and former federal officials, community members, researchers, and individuals working on gun violence prevention in both territories. Those conversations helped map the social, political, and historical contexts shaping gun violence in the region — contexts that the raw numbers alone cannot capture.

Neglect at the Policy Level

Giffords.org states directly that the problem of gun violence and gun trafficking in Puerto Rico and the USVI has long been neglected by both politicians and advocates. The report in which these findings appear is framed explicitly as an attempt to bring the crisis into view and to outline concrete recommendations for addressing it.

Residents of both Puerto Rico and the USVI are American citizens. Some residents continue to describe these territories as US colonies, citing the historically unequal relationship between the federal government and the islands. The report uses the federal government's preferred term — "territory" — while acknowledging that framing remains contested.

Gun violence in the United States has reached a 40-year high. Giffords.org argues it is past time for the federal government to adequately fund research into what it describes as a public health epidemic — one that extends well beyond the 50 states and into communities that have long been left out of the national conversation.

Source: Google News VI — Crime