Welcome to the 1000 Cities Project!

I track gun violence (intentional firearm fatalities and injuries) in 1300+ cities, but “1000 Cities” sounds catchier, so I went with that.

The goal of this project is to highlight overlooked trends in community gun violence in American cities of all sizes, especially small and mid-sized cities that are typically understudied. Such cities are increasingly contenting with what might previously have been considered “big city” amounts of intentional firearm violence. The data is from approximately 1320 urbanized communities, including principal cities of micropolitan statistical areas with 5,000-50,000 residents, plus every US city with 50,000 or more residents. Rural, isolated town with <50,000 residents are omitted from the analysis. The information presented here expands upon and updates my analysis, “Not as Bad as the ‘90s”? Firearm Violence in Small, Mid-size, and Large US Cities, 2015-2021, published in peer-reviewed academic journal Homicide Studies. “Not as Bad as the ‘90s” contextualizes urban gun violence in the present era using firearm homicide and injury data from over 1320 American communities. This newsletter is dedicated to informing concerned citizens, policymakers, researchers, and journalists about the severity and scope of community gun violence in the United States.