The State of Gun Violence in Charlottesville & Albemarle

Samantha Toet & Michele Claibourn, The Center for Community Partnerships

Contents

The information presented here represents incredibly personal and traumatizing moments in people’s lives, and may be distressing to many. Help is available. If you need to talk, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to speak to someone that cares. You can also visit Help Happens Here to get connected to free and low-barrier services.

One-Page Summary

Introduction

Every day, more than 120 people in America are killed with guns1. The gun homicide rate in the U.S. is 26 times higher than that of other high-income countries2. In 2024, the US Surgeon General’s Advisory declared gun violence as a public health crisis3.

Charlottesville and Albemarle are not immune to the epidemic of gun violence. The rate of violent crime in our community increased by 30% from 2021 to 2022, and in the early months of 2023, police had already investigated five homicide cases compared to zero cases in 20214. On November 13, 2022, three UVA football players were shot and killed on campus. Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry lost their lives to an act of gun violence. While incidents of gun violence have decreased in the first half of 20245, according to shots fired police reports the number of bullets recovered at each scene has increased, pointing to the ever-changing nature of the issue.

A Collective Toll

The harm of gun violence takes many forms – deaths and injuries are the most obvious, but the collective trauma of hearing or witnessing gunshots also erodes community safety. This report aims to clarify current knowledge, as well as knowledge gaps, to support community solutions. Each source of data tells a part of the story, and by bringing these sources together we hope to tell a broader story about the nature, shape, and impacts of gun violence in our community. The broader goal is to expand and support the voices in our community working to identify solutions.

Incidents of Gun Violence in Charlottesville & Albemarle and Number of Victims by Month

Notable Trends

This graph shows the number of victims of gun violence in Charlottesville and Albemarle, by month, and whether they were injured or killed. The height of each bar represents the number of individuals directly harmed. The dark purple bars show the number of people injured, and the green bars shows the number of people that lost their lives each month. The blue line above the bars shows the total number of verified incidents, such as shots fired. Although the number of injuries and deaths varies month-to-month, the number of incidents remains relatively high, especially following COVID in 2020.

Goals

The Gun Violence Solutions Project is a University-sponsored effort to work with community partners on assessing, developing, and implementing actionable solutions to reduce gun violence in mid-sized cities and regions, like Charlottesville and Albemarle. One arm of the Gun Violence Solutions Project is focused on researching solutions that could be implemented locally, while exploring law and policy alongside the historical, cultural, and structural factors that shape gun violence.

This document is meant to help our community understand the larger picture of gun violence and gun violence trauma in our region by bringing together multiple sources of data. Each section includes an overview of the data source presented, a brief discussion of notable trends, and limitations that may complicate or constrain conclusions.

The numbers presented here each represent part of a story. By bringing them together, and in conversation with our community, we hope to collectively tell a fuller story. The community – residents of Charlottesville and Albemarle – is the central stakeholder. The folks who live and work here are the data. Given the wealth of lived experience and the range of perspectives within our community, these voices must be centered. Together we can develop a shared understanding and greater clarity about the local problems of gun violence, identify knowledge and data gaps, and promote wider community engagement in conversations about solutions.

Ultimately, we hope this work will be part of:

  1. Understanding the full impact of gun violence on our community and how different people experience this impact;

  2. Working with residents, advocates, and decision-makers to identify approaches to prevention and intervention for all types of gun violence; and

  3. Evaluating the effectiveness of current and future efforts to eliminate gun violence.

Data Notes

The data provided below represent information that is, for the most part, publicly available. This document is meant to serve as an overview of the existing resources so that we can begin representing the nature, scope, and dimensions of the problem locally.

Much of this data relies on information created when people interact with representatives of public services. While reduced to counts and numbers, the experiences and processes the data represent are deeply human. People’s decisions select, record, and shape the data. Though no personally identifiable information is contained in this report, each data point represents a moment in the lives of members of our community.

The code and (most of the) data are available at our GitHub repository. We encourage anyone interested to review these analyses or extend them by contributing their own data-driven insights.

Because the data below is drawn from various sources – news outlets, the Virginia Department of Health, the US Census Bureau, and local and national law enforcement agencies – we provide a glossary to clarify terminology.

Please refer to the Terminology section of the Appendix for more information and a list of definitions.

Firearm Injuries & Deaths

The leading cause of death by gun violence in the Blue Ridge Health District is suicide, which made up 76% of all firearm-related deaths from 2018 to 2022. This mirrors national patterns, where more than 60% of gun deaths are by suicide6.

Firearm Deaths in the Blue Ridge Health District (2018-2022)

Notable Trends

The visualization above represents each individual that lost their lives from gun violence in the Blue Ridge Health District between 2018 and 2022, color coded by their cause of death. Of the 141 total lives lost, 107 (or 76%) were by suicide, 31 were homicide, 2 were undetermined or by police intervention, and 1 was accidental. The Blue Ridge Health District includes Charlottesville City, and the counties of Albemarle, Greene, Louisa, Fluvanna, and Nelson. Homicide – community violence, domestic violence, mass shootings, and other intentional violence – accounts for 22% of all deaths. Of all 141 firearm-related deaths between this time period, 68 (48%) were in Charlottesville or Albemarle7.

If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is here. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to speak to someone that cares. You can also visit Help Happens Here to get connected to free and low-barrier services.

Injuries in Charlottesville & Albemarle

The Virginia Department of Health reports data on emergency department visits for firearm injuries. The bar chart and table below show the rate of firearm injuries per 10,000 emergency department visits in Charlottesville and Albemarle from 2015 - 2024.

Bar Chart

The bar chart on the left shows the number of firearm-related emergency department visits in Charlottesville and Albemarle over time and the bar chart on the right shows the rate of firearm-related emergency department visits per 10,000 emergency department visits over time. The two peaks, 2020 and 2023, are highlighted.

Notable Trends

In 2020, the rate of firearm injuries peaked at 8.3, with 29 firearm injuries among 34,875 emergency department visits. However, 2020 also had the lowest number of emergency department visits which aligns with national trends of decreased emergency department use during the COVID-19 pandemic8. After falling in 2021, the firearm injury rate began trending upward. The year with the most number of firearm-related emergency room visits was 2023, with 35 visits, and the year with the most number of overall emergency room visits was 2024, with 55,578 visits.

Table

The table below shows the exact number of emergency department visits in Charlottesville and Albemarle compared to firearm-related visits over time.

Data Source: Virginia Department of Health Firearm-Related ED Visits

Data Notes

City/county localities are assigned using the patient’s residential zip code for Virginia residents. Patients with non-Virginia or unknown zip codes are grouped as ‘Out of State.’

Firearm injury visits are identified using key terms in the chief complaint (reason for visit) and discharge diagnosis codes. Key terms include: gun with wound, GSW, gunshot, buckshot, revolver, rifle, shotgun, firearm, pistol, handgun, been shot, I was shot, I got shot, combination of hit, ricochet, graze with bullet. ICD-10 diagnosis codes: W32.0, W32.1, W33.0, W33.1, W34.0, W34.1, X72, X73, X74, X93, X94, X95, Y22, Y23, Y24, Y35.0, Y38.4 SNOMED diagnosis codes: 41430008, 56768003, 63409001, 69861004, 77301004, 86122002, 111050005, 219257002, 283545005, 218081007, 218086002, 218082000, 218087006, 218088001, 269796009, 242869008, 219199009, 219200007, 219201006, 219204003, 219205002, 219203009, 219198001, 219142001, 219143006, 219144000, 219145004, 219146003, 287184008, 287193009.

This excludes follow-up visits, visits involving other types of guns (e.g., staple gun), and visits where firearm was used as a weapon but not fired (e.g., pistol whip).

Deaths by Age Group

The Virginia Department of Health tracks causes of death among Virginia residents using death certificates and reports on all firearm-related fatalities. Below we show the distribution of gun deaths by age in our region between 2018 and 2022.

Bar Chart

The bar chart on the left shows the number of firearm-related deaths in the Blue Ridge Health District between 2018-2022, and the bar chart on the right shows the rate of firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people in that age group.

Notable Trends

The plot above shows that the rate of firearm death is highest for individuals aged 18 and 19 years old, with a rate of 18.3 based on 8 confirmed firearm-related deaths between 2018 and 2022 in the Blue Ridge Health District. A rate of 18.3 means that for every 100,000 people aged 18-19 living in the region, 18 individuals would have lost their lives to gun violence. While there are fewer than 100,000 residents aged 18-19, the rate helps compare risk of gun-related deaths across age ranges.

The rate above 14 per 100k individuals for all ages between 18 and 44 years old. The age group with the second-highest percentage of gun-related deaths are individuals above the age of 75, with 16 deaths per 100,000 people. Given that suicide is the number one cause of firearm-related death in our region, we assume that a majority of the deaths for individuals 75 and older were suicide.

Table

The table below shows the exact numbers of firearm-related deaths in the Blue Ridge Health District between 2018-2022.

Data Source: Virginia Department of Health Firearm-Related ED Visits

Data Notes

Deaths are classified as firearm-related using the definition from the Centers for Disease Control9.

VDH reports the number and rate of firearm-related deaths among Virginia residents by patient health district and age from 2018 through 2022. Virginia Department of Health districts are assigned based on the residence of the patient at the time of death, not where the death occurred. Data includes Virginia residents only, regardless of whether they died in Virginia.

Incidents of Gun Violence

The Gun Violence Archive curates a database of incidents of gun violence and gun crime, sourced from local and state police, media, data aggregates, and government. The database includes information about 213 incidents of gun violence affecting 325 participants in the Charlottesville/Albemarle region from May 17th 2014 - December 31st 2024 along with 13587 incidents affecting 21765 in Virginia from January 1st 2015 - December 31st 2024 . An individual may be involved in more than one incident (see incidents vs. crimes). Incidents range from shots fired reports, to unlawful gun ownership, to acts of violence such as assault and homicide. The Gun Violence Archive does not include information about suicides.

The data includes four datasets: one has information about each incident and the associated outcomes (for example, the number of people injured and/or killed), and the other lists participant-level information (for example, the age range and gender of both victims and suspects) for the Charlottesville and Albemarle region along with the entire Virginia Commonwealth. All include the approximate location and date of each incident along with characteristics such the number of injuries, and the nature of the gun incident.

Incidents in Charlottesville

Victims of Gun Violence in the Charlottesville/Albemarle Region

Notable Trends

The bar graph above shows that the number of victims both injured and killed in incidents of gun violence have increased tenfold from 3 in 2014 to 33 in 2022. 2022 had the highest number of victims injured, with 24 individuals reported being shot, while 2023 was the deadliest year, with 12 individuals losing their lives to gun violence. While 2024 only includes data through April, so far the numbers are trending lower than in previous years.

Incidents in Virginia

Victims of Gun Violence in Virginia

Ages of Individuals Involved

Ages of Individuals Involved in Gun Violence in the Charlottesville/Albemarle Region

Notable Trends

The bar graph above shows the percentage of those involved with gun violence by age over the last 10 years. The width of each bar represents the approximate percentage of each role by age group. The teal bars on the left show the age ranges of defendants and the purple bars on the right show the age ranges of the victims of gun violence. The width of each bar represents the approximate percentage. Between 2014 to 2024, there were 115 defendants and 81 victims reported. Of the defendants, 29% were between the ages of 20-24, while 19% of the victims were.

Data Notes

The data does not include any identifiable information about the participants, like name, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or mental health status.

Voluntary Participation

Because the data is sourced largely from public news websites, if an act of violence didn’t receive local news attention it was not included in the Gun Violence Archive database. That means this data underrepresents some information, especially shots fired numbers. Notably, it looks like shots fired incidents haven’t been added to the database since 2021.

Suicides

Suicides are not part of the Gun Violence Archive’s normal data collection procedures. Individual suicides are collected through the CDC’s Annual Report10 and, because of privacy and CDC policy, they are only available as an aggregate number, without detail. Suicides associated with Officer-Involved incidents and Murder-Suicides are included in Gun Violence Archive tallies because they are considered incidents of community violence.

Suicides

If you need to talk, the 988 Lifeline is here. Call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to speak to someone that cares. You can also visit Help Happens Here to get connected to free and low-barrier services.

Suicide is the most prevalent form of firearm violence in the United States, with many sources showing an increase in recent years11. The information below is pulled from the Centers for Disease Control WONDER (Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research) portal. The tables show suicide rates by region, age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Our goal with showing this information is that more more focused attention, and less stigma, is attached to this tragic form of death, and as a result more resources for support can be allocated.

Data Notes

Death counts less than 10 are suppressed by the CDC so that individuals cannot be identified. As a result when calculating crude rates, we show a range of values. For calculating percents, we used approximate values. For race and ethnicity estimates, we used the CDC Six Race Categorizations 12.


Suicides by Region

The table below shows the number of suicides in Charlottesville and Albemarle between 2018 to 2023 and the estimated rates per 100,000 people.

Data Source: Centers for Disease Control

Notable Trends

Between 2018 - 2023, there were 55 suicides by firearm in Albemarle County and less than 10 in Charlottesville City. Because the population of Albemarle county is significantly larger, we also look at the rates per one hundred thousand people. In Albemarle, the rate is 8.2 deaths by suicide per 100,000 people, and in Charlottesville the rate is between 0.4 - 3.2. Despite having a larger population, the rate of suicide is still higher in Albemarle than Charlottesville.

Suicides by Age

The table below shows a breakdown of age and gender of the 129 suicides by firearm in the Blue Ridge Health District between 2018 - 2023.

Data Source: Centers for Disease Control

Notable Trends

Between 2018 - 2023, approximately 76% of the suicides by firearm were committed by men, with the ages 15-34 and 65-74 making up the largest percent of victims. This information mirrors national trends concerning sex and suicide by firearms13.

Suicides by Race and Ethnicity

The tables below show a breakdown of race, ethnicity, and gender of the 129 suicides by firearm in the Blue Ridge Health District and the 4199 suicides by firearm in Virginia between 2018 - 2023.

In the Blue Ridge Health District, the suicide counts for individuals that identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, multiple races, or other races not listed by the CDC was zero, so they are not included in the first table.

Percentages of Firearm Suicides in the Blue Ridge Health District by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex

Data Source: Centers for Disease Control

Percentages of Firearm Suicides in Virginia by Race, Ethnicity, and Sex

Data Source: Centers for Disease Control

Notable Trends

The tables above both highlight the trend of white, non-Hispanic males being the prominent victims of suicide by firearm. In the Blue Ridge Health District, white, non-Hispanic males make up 36.8% of the total population, but 80.6% of the total suicides by firearm. In Virginia, the percent of white males males up 30.7% of the total population, but 69.8% of the suicides by firearm. In both of these regions, other demographics that are victims of suicide by firearm are white, non-Hispanic females, and Black non-Hispanic males.

Crimes Involving Firearms

Crime data for Virginia are pulled from Virginia’s Uniform Crime Reporting - Incident Based Reporting system. The state system follows the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting standards, and the state mandates participation by all publicly-funded law enforcement agencies.

Intimate Partner and Family Violence

Intimate partner and family violence are a prevalent form of gun violence in the United States, and are often closely linked to firearm accessibility14. Intimate partner violence is defined as abuse or aggression that occurs in a romantic relationship15, and family violence is characterized by abuse or aggression among family members.

The tables below show breakdown of sex as it relates to reported incidents of intimate partner violence and family violence with firearms in the combined Charlottesville and Albemarle region and in Virginia between 2016 - 2023. Because many incidents of intimate partner and family violence go unreported, we can assume that many of these numbers are under recorded. For example, according to data collected by the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance, 18% of the 23,930 persons receiving domestic violence advocacy services in Virginia in 2023 reported that the perpetrator used a weapon, including a firearm.16

Victims by Sex of Intimate Violence and Family Violence with a Firearm in Charlottesville and Albemarle

Data Source: National Incident-Based Reporting System

Victims by Sex of Intimate Violence and Family Violence with a Firearm in Virginia

Data Source: National Incident-Based Reporting System

Notable Trends

The tables above show that in both the Charlottesville and Albemarle regions and Virginia, women are the most common victims of intimate partner violence with a firearm, while men are the most common victims of family violence with a firearm. When a firearm is involved, intimate partner violence is much more deadly. In Virginia, in 2023, 71% of homicides from intimate partner violence were committed with a firearm. This information mirrors national trends17.

Youth Firearm Rates

The data below contains summaries of all crimes where a firearm was used in Virginia, Albemarle County, and Charlottesville City between 2016 - 2023, separated by whether the individuals believed to have committed the crime was an adult or youth. For this source, youth are considered to be under the age of 18.

Notable Trends

The figure above shows the rate of gun violence crimes per 100k population over time broken down by participant age. Statewide, the firearm crime rate has been generally increasing: the adult rate increased from 118 crimes per 100k people in 2016 to 168 crimes per 100k people in 2023 and the youth rate increased from 12 crimes per 100k people to 16 crimes per 100k people. These numbers mean that on average, in Virginia in 2023, for every 100k people, there were 168 firearm-related crimes committed by adults and 16 firearm-related crimes committed by individuals under 18.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, crimes involving firearms increased for all age groups, most notably among youth. In Charlottesville, the youth firearm crime rate surpassed state levels in 2022. In 2023, however, both adult and youth firearm crime rates decreased.

Data Notes

Participation

The Virginia Incident-Based Reporting system is managed by the Virginia State Police Data Analysis and Reporting Team. Although participation is mandatory, there is the potential for some data loss as each law enforcement agency finalizes their data submission process and data is updated.

Police Reporting

This dataset includes an anonymized collection of 890 gun-related incidents recorded by the Charlottesville Police Department (CPD), the Albemarle County Police Department (ACPD), and the UVA Police Department (UPD) between January 1, 2019 - May 18, 2024. The data was retrieved from their SQL database by the ACPD Sr. Crime Analyst, de-identified, and then shared with the Equity Center in June 2024. To preserve anonymity while also providing geographic information, approximate block numbers are used instead of specific addresses. This data is used further below to compare incidents of gun violence to underlying population characteristics.

Each observation represents the initial information that is provided by individuals calling for police assistance. Some incidents are listed as “Unverified” which means that although a call was made to the police, there was not sufficient evidence to confirm an incident of gun violence actually occurred (see Data Notes section below.)

As a result, this is not a definitive collection of public safety data for Charlottesville and Albemarle. These reports likely miss some acts of gun violence as not all incidents are reported to the police. Both personal and structural histories impact individuals’ likelihood of calling the police. In addition, while verified reports indicate evidence of shots fired, they do not mean that an arrest was made.

Incidents of Gun Violence in Charlottesville & Albemarle

Notable Trends

The stacked bar plots above show the types of firearm-related incidents in Charlottesville and Albemarle between 2019 and early 2024. While the number of shots-fired reports is higher in Albemarle County, the number of violent incidents such as aggravated assault and homicide is higher in Charlottesville. The distinct geographies contained in each locality likely accounts for some of this difference. For example, shots fired in a rural area of Albemarle County may be a result of wildlife hunting season, while shots fired in an urban area of Charlottesville is typically not associated with legal wildlife hunting.

Age & Race of Victims of Gun Violence

The table below shows the race and age breakdown of the 513 total victims of gun violence (injury and death) reported to the police between January 2019 to May 2024.

Data Source: Verified Anonymized Police Reports

Some elements of the police data are also available through Citizen Connect, an interface that allows users to view a variety of policing interactions across the region.

Notable Trends

According to the table above, Black individuals make up 55% of the victims of gun violence, but only 11% of the total population in Charlottesville and Albemarle. In particular, Black individuals aged 25-34 comprise 17.2% of the victims. Regardless of race, individuals aged 25-34 make up 27% of all victims.

Data Notes

There are many limitations to this dataset and as a result we should be cautious when making inferences. Namely:

  • This information is neither all-inclusive nor complete. The numbers presented are estimates and only include calls to the police. Not everyone feels comfortable calling the police, and so these may be undercounts.

  • The number of victims is not verified by hospital records (for example, someone going to the hospital for a gunshot wound and reporting it to the police vs. someone calling the police because they think they saw someone get shot — there is no way to differentiate between the two in this dataset).

  • We do not know the precise demographic collection mechanisms used by each officer. For example, we do not know if the race information is self-reported, assumed by the officer, or assumed by a bystander who called for police support.

  • Ethnicity is not collected, and there is no way of identifying individuals that identify as having multiple races.

  • If an individual is involved in multiple instances of gun violence, they may be recorded in this data set multiple times.

Verification

Each incident is listed as being verified, unverified, or as a case. An incident is considered verified if it can be proved by an officer to have happened or there is reasonable evidence of its occurrence. For example, a shots fired incident would be verified if there were shell casings found at the scene.

An incident would be considered unverified if there was no proof after the fact that it happened. For example, someone may call the police to report hearing loud noises, however when the officers arrived they find either no evidence of a shooting, or evidence to prove otherwise, such as used fireworks supplies.

An incident would be marked as a case if it required significant follow up, or was otherwise recorded as a crime to be investigated. Typically more violent incidents such as aggravated assault or homicide become cases.

Data Sharing

Because this data may include information that is actively being used in court, it is the only data source in this report that is not fully open-sourced, or publicly available. This decision was made so that the individuals being represented can maintain their anonymity throughout the duration of their trial and subsequent followup. A similar, but more limited, report can be generated based on data availble in the Charlottesville Open Data Portal, and instructions on how to do so are outlined in scripts.R.

Charlottesville Open Data Portal

Another way of exploring local gun violence data is through the publicly available Charlottesville Open Data Portal. This database includes 526 gun-related crime reports, and 390 gun-related arrests in City of Charlottesville from March 2019 through April 2024.

This data differs from the above data, shared directly by the police, in the following ways:

  1. It includes only reports in the Charlottesville district;
  2. It includes all calls to police, not just gun-related calls;
  3. It does not include additional incident information such as verification or if it was assigned to a detective as a case.

The dataset is made up of two dataframes. The first includes information about initial crime report. This data represent the first step when gun-related crimes are recorded; the police-provided data represents the observations after subsequent steps – officer investigation – have occurred. The second data set includes arrest data. Both datasets have been anonymized to remove names and other identifiable information such as house numbers.