--- title: Black Americans Lose More Years to Guns Than White Americans description: A new study says guns cause black Americans to lose 4.14 total years of life expectancy, compared to 2.23 years for white Americans. canonical: https://time.com/5471069/guns-life-expectancy/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-05T15:55:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:16:41.248Z article:section: Health og:title: Black Americans Lose Twice As Many Years of Life to Guns As White Americans Do, Study Says og:description: Largely because of assaults and homicides og:url: https://time.com/5471069/guns-life-expectancy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b28c4cca18a3835/698940977cdbac7c04d5e961/guns-life-expectancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6016 og:image:height: 3384 og:image:alt: Directly Above Shot Of Handgun And Bullets On Table og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Black Americans Lose Twice As Many Years of Life to Guns As White Americans Do, Study Says twitter:description: Largely because of assaults and homicides twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0b28c4cca18a3835/698940977cdbac7c04d5e961/guns-life-expectancy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Black Americans Lose Twice As Many Years of Life to Guns As White Americans Do, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=f1bdc262-769b-4f9d-8eb2-846d7361b342&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Guns in America: Behind the Making of the JRxTIME Cover [Watch (HLS stream): Guns in America: Behind the Making of the JRxTIME Cover](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/P13NV3dg.m3u8) (6:47)  _Published 2018-10-25. Guns in America: Behind the Making of the JRxTIME Cover_  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 5, 2018 3:55 PM UTC  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Dec 5, 2018 3:55 PM UTC Firearms are responsible for a more than four-year loss of life expectancy among black Americans — roughly double the firearm-related loss seen among white Americans, according to [a new study](https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2018/11/22/bmjebm-2018-111103) published in _BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine._ According to [recent federal data](http://time.com/5464607/us-life-expectancy-2017/), the average American in 2017 could expect to live until age 78.6, a slight decline from recent years’ estimates. But death rates vary widely depending on demographic, [that report](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm) showed. The death rate among black men, for example, was calculated at around 1,083 deaths per 100,000 people, compared to about 885 for white men, 728 for black women and 642 for white women. The new paper, believed to be the first to quantify firearm-related loss of life for black and white Americans of different ages, helps to partially explain those vastly different numbers. Using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data collected between 2000 and 2016, a team led by researchers from the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health found that firearms shave 4.14 years off the total life expectancy of black Americans and 2.23 years off the life expectancy of white Americans. In 2015, the most recent year with published race-specific [CDC estimates](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2017/015.pdf), a white American could expect to live to age 78.9, while a black American could expect to live to age 75.5\. (Across the board, women tend to live longer than men: 81.3 years versus 76.6 years for white Americans, and 78.5 years versus 72.2 years for black Americans.) The discrepancy, the researchers write, is “driven by substantially higher homicide rates among blacks up to age 20.” The total life expectancy loss attributable to firearm assault, specifically, was calculated at 3.41 years for black Americans, and 0.51 years for white Americans. Meanwhile, life expectancy loss attributable to firearm-related suicide was much higher among white Americans: 1.62 years, compared to 0.60 years for black Americans. Still, the difference was not enough to “offset the loss among blacks…indicative of persisting disparities in homicide among younger age groups,” the authors write. The ages at which assaults and deaths by suicide occur also matter, the researchers note. Gun-related assaults and homicides disproportionately affect young black Americans, so the cumulative effect of these very early deaths adds up to a sizable loss of total life expectancy. Deaths by suicide, meanwhile, are more common among older white Americans, who have already lived a greater proportion of their estimated lifespan, resulting in a smaller total dip in life expectancy. American doctors [have in recent months been vocal](http://time.com/5460036/this-is-our-lane-doctors-guns/) about the need to consider gun violence a public-health issue. But the new paper serves as a reminder that all populations are not affected by this issue equally. “In the absence of comprehensive firearm legislation,” the authors write, “targeted prevention programmes and policies are needed to mitigate the racial firearm injury gaps in the USA.” ## Transcript The first days of shoot were in St. Louis. And I have to say that I've never seen that much weapon in my life. It was a whole new universe to me. We're here doing a very special mural for the cover of Time Magazine. It's a metaphor of what's happening in the US. In France we don't have any relation with guns, and so I'm discovering the whole issue all together. Hi. How are you. I'm good. I'm JR. [ UNKNOWN ] Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I love your hat. A lot of people do, I have to travel armed just to protect the hat. Yeah, I'm sure. I cannot wait to start seeing it all come together, and then hearing what everybody had to say. You can put it back, and back to position. I assumed it's gonna give us a spectacular image at the end. And three, two, one, and cut. I think I was about nine, or ten, years old when I heard the first gunshots in our neighborhood. I personally will not touch a gun. It is a death machine. It took me getting shot in a small Southwest Virginia French class to realize that gun violence can happen to us anywhere and that we, in fact, have done very little to keep guns away from From dangerous people. We must stop killing each other. Great, and then hold the position. We find ourselves emersed in the gun violence ocean, and we're drowning in it. Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen. We have very lax gun laws. And that is scary. And I want these words out there, because these are words that need to be heard. There werr people that just expected that somehow my views on guns would change. That horrible incident only solidified my strong beliefs that you want law- abiding citizens to be able to defend themselves and others because Cuz there are bad guys out there. I think it depends on who's holding the gun, and how you want that bullet to penetrate before you fire the gun. We're all human beings, and at the end of the day we all wanna make it home. [ MUSIC ] When I hear of a school shooting, or if I hear of somebody that got raped or murdered I'm just like appalled thinking about what happened to them. And it's like, I wish they could protect themselves. It's disheartening as a gun owner and as an NRA member, to continually get bullied. I think it allows people who don't agree with the gun issue to really hate me, when I don't feel like I'm hateable. And we're gonna do it one more time. One, two, three and action [ SOUND ] I look good. You look good that's for sure. I look intense. Yeah. Like I'm ready for something. You can close your eyes and then I'm gonna say look The moment that changed my perspective on becoming a gun owner was the moment that I saw and heard the fear in the voice Of the children that I have given birth to. [ MUSIC ] All I have was this to protect them. I think the firearm in the world, it's here, it's a necessary evil. An armed society is essential to maintaining a free society. [ MUSIC ] All the you know is dangerous. Men, black men in America with a gun. [ MUSIC ] The second minute they shown as day by day they did it's not applied to us. [ MUSIC ] It was never meant for us. [ MUSIC ] I'm trans, I'm Republican, I'm originally from rural Mississippi, I live in San Francisco. I'm pro- free speech and pro- guns, I'm just not what people expect to see. If you put this one we almost can see the both of them, no? People are astounded by it. They don't hear about teenage girls Shooting guns. I have a whole shelf in my room that is now occupied by ammo, and gun gear. And so I don't even think I can imagine my life without competitive shooting. Wow, cool. And now look back at the x. [ MUSIC ] I agreed to be part of this project because I think it's important to represent the middle. In 2018, the middle is a very difficult place to be. I'm a trauma surgeon. We have patients who are shot on a regular basis. I also been a lifetime shooter so yeah, I made a debate within myself. I love guns and I hate gun shot wounds. [ MUSIC ] This project seems to me a really neat and innovative way to force people to have a conversation about first the things we agree on On and you know maybe the political routes to try to settle our differences on the parts that we don't agree on. To watch students themselves say, okay you adults. You know, you've messed things up some, let us take over, was completely inspiring to me. This is what democracy looks like. We will not be silent. Exactly, up, hold it, hold it. Stop killing people. That's cool, right? I'm gonna mark it five which means it's gonna get on the cover. Welcome. My God! Wow! Wow! Since we knew that you were gonna be doing This we've been researching all the things you've done in your young life, amazing. Thank you. And it's a pleasure to meet you. This is going to be their country. Their going to be running it for me someday and I think that adults need to listen to our youth a lot more. They're more informed and aware of things then I certaintly was at their age. [ MUSIC ] It's very fascinating going through the process because the debate it is not necessarily where you think it is. And the walls and the barriers are not necessarily where you thought they were. [ MUSIC ] Those people that are now Part of this mural. They maybe don't know it, but they are linked to each other, because they'll always be part of the same mural. Even if they don't share the same ideas. [ MUSIC ] I really hope that they will like to really listen to each other. And I hope people will join this conversation. 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