Gun deaths are rising in Wisconsin. Suicide and rural areas are a big part of the picture

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When you think about gun deaths in Wisconsin, what comes to mind?

Whatever the narrative, it probably revolves around Milwaukee. You may think of the homicides that plague some neighborhoods.

Or maybe it’s an accidental shooting, after a young child gets a gun that wasn’t locked up.

Or when a police officer shoots someone, or is shot, in the line of duty; or when someone kills another person after being attacked.

All those cases happen with disturbing frequency, and the tragedy is often amplified through news coverage. But they are not the complete picture of gun deaths in Wisconsin. Not even close.

In fact, homicides, accidents and shootings deemed justified put together do not account for even one-third of all gunshot deaths in Wisconsin, according to state data.

Suicide is the missing piece.

For every 100 fatal shootings in Wisconsin, on average 71 deaths are suicides, 25 are homicides, two are police shootings, one is deemed an accident and the balance are undetermined, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of state health data.

In the past 18 years, the number of gun deaths in the state has been steadily rising.

Last year, more than 800 people died from gunshot wounds, a 95% rate increase when adjusted for population growth since 2004, the analysis found.

The increase was driven by a well-documented surge in homicides, especially in Milwaukee during the pandemic, but also by a less-publicized increase in suicides. Last year for the first time, gun suicides resulted in more than 500 deaths in Wisconsin, preliminary state data show.

The epicenter of these deaths is in Wisconsin’s rural counties, the analysis shows, and the rates have grown fastest in the state’s suburban counties.

The picture is similar, from two directions: Every year, guns are the most common means of suicide. And suicide is the biggest share of all gun deaths in Wisconsin.

The increase in deaths comes amid surging gun sales that began during the pandemic. Experts caution against pinpointing one factor, such as the jump in sales, as the single cause of the increase in gun deaths, but access to lethal means is a key ingredient – and the higher sales point to greater accessibility.

Meanwhile, the death data indicates that guns bought for hunting, sport or self-protection are increasingly being used for self-destruction by gun owners, or people close to them.

There are numbers behind the gun deaths, but more importantly, there are people.

“There is a proverb that says, 'If you save the life of my loved one, you saved my world,'” said Debi Traeder, who works in suicide prevention in Wausau and has lived around guns all her life. “For every person we help, the world is a better place.”

In her work studying suicides, Sara Kohlbeck finds people are often surprised by the breakdown of gun deaths in Wisconsin. Grouping gun deaths together has drawbacks, she said, because circumstances vary widely around a suicide and a homicide, for instance.

But grouping suicides with other firearms fatalities has value, helping people understand that the issue of gun deaths touches every part of the state, said Kohlbeck, director of Suicide Research and Healing in the Comprehensive Injury Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

“Highlighting suicide as a major cause of firearms-related deaths will advance the entire conversation because a lot of us know somebody who has died by suicide,” she said. “It opens the door.”

To underline the point, consider the ranking of gun death rates in Wisconsin’s counties. When homicides, accidents and police shootings are the measurement, Milwaukee County tops the list.

But when gun suicides are included, the ranking changes and the state’s rural counties rise to the forefront of firearms deaths.

Because of the complexities behind the different kinds of firearms deaths, coupled with the state’s hunting tradition, solutions to these deaths also must be multi-faceted, said Jean Papalia, a retired Madison police officer who works in suicide prevention.

Such efforts may include a focus on better access to mental health services, especially in rural areas; firearms limits during a crisis, through the government and voluntary efforts; education and training for new gun owners; or more likely a combination of all of these and others.

“Isn't there a temptation to find one easy fix?” Papalia said. “That’s why legislators are like, ‘If we just had a – insert the word – a 24-hour waiting period, universal background checks, mandatory this or that, then these deaths would stop.’ But it is far more complex than a one-size-fits-all. I wish it were that simple.”

Through the O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University, the Journal Sentinel sought death data from every county in Wisconsin to examine gun deaths statewide. Over 12 months, the reporting team obtained records for all but one county in Wisconsin.

What emerges is a far different map and a different picture of gun deaths, one that doesn’t tilt so heavily toward Milwaukee, but is more evenly balanced.

What Wisconsin's data on gun deaths shows

Data from the state Department of Health Services and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides a picture of trends in Wisconsin over the past 18 years.

• Nine of the 10 counties in Wisconsin with the highest gun death rates were rural. Just one — Milwaukee — was urban, ranking sixth. The firearms death rate in Wisconsin’s rural counties was 12% higher than urban counties.

• The rate is rising fastest in suburban counties — places such as Waukesha, Ozaukee, Kenosha and Washington, as well as St. Croix and Pierce counties near Minneapolis. The firearm death rate in those counties more than doubled.

• African American males are the most likely group to die by gun homicide. White males are the most likely to die by gun suicide.

• Firearms account for the largest single share of both suicides and homicides – 50% of suicides and 70% of homicides.

• Accidental shootings and shootings by police were mostly flat and both declined in 2022. Because they are comparatively rare, they don’t affect overall figures much.

Data challenges assumptions about gun deaths

Manitowoc County provided the most detailed data to the Journal Sentinel.

Curt Green, Manitowoc’s coroner, said he collects more detailed data so he can better educate the public.

Between 1990 and August of this year, there were 200 total gun deaths in Manitowoc County. Of those deaths, 176, or 88%, were suicides; 20 were homicides and four were ruled accidental. Green plans to soon hold a public session based on the gun death data.

“Many people watch the news and they see these mass shootings and these homicides and they have this misconception that most gun deaths are homicides,” Green said. “Most people don’t have any idea. It’s suicides.”

Green collects information about a victim’s mental health history and treatment, as well as alcohol and drug use. Of the gun suicides in the county since 1990, 75% of victims had reported feeling depressed and about half had problems with alcohol. In seven cases, the family reported the gun used had been recently purchased.

Several counties reported a higher percentage of suicides than Manitowoc, at 90% or even 100% of gun deaths.

That was the case in Langlade County, with 19,500 residents northwest of Green Bay. In the six years of records provided to the Journal Sentinel, there were 10 deaths from firearms. All were suicides.

“Like 90-plus percent of homes in Langlade County have guns and it’s not for safety,” Coroner Larry Shadick said. “Hunting is big up here. And suicide is big for us.”

In Milwaukee County, the homicide vs. suicide picture is the opposite of state averages.

There were nearly 3,000 gun deaths over 20 years of data provided by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office. Homicides accounted for 70% of the total, while suicides accounted for 28%. Milwaukee had a low suicide rate compared to other counties; just six counties had a lower rate, state data shows.

Overall, Wisconsin's percentage of gun deaths that are suicides is 12 percentage points higher than the national average, according to CDC data.

Experts note this data counts only gun fatalities, not gun injuries.

There is a sharp difference in the fatality rates between homicides and suicides when a gun is used. In the majority of incidents in which a person shoots another person, there is not a death. In Milwaukee, for every one gun homicide, there are another four or five non-fatal shootings, according to the Homicide Review Commission.

With gun suicides, however, the numbers are more than reversed. An estimated 90% of gun suicide attempts result in death.

Gun owners not more prone to suicidal thoughts

The increase in gun deaths in Wisconsin is likely fueled by a cauldron of factors including the economy, isolation and despair, the state’s robust drinking culture, a lack of mental health services and increased availability of guns, according to Kohlbeck and others.

In a well-documented phenomenon, Americans bought 60 million guns between 2020 and 2022, with an estimated 5 million of those sold to first-time buyers, research shows. Gun sales essentially doubled in those months.

Surveys indicate there are now an estimated 400 million guns in the U.S. owned by roughly one-third of the population. There is at least one gun in an estimated 45% of homes, a figure that fluctuates somewhat over time and was slightly higher in the 1980s.

Experts stress that gun owners aren’t more prone to suicidal or homicidal thoughts. However, because of their access to a gun, a death is more likely should they encounter a crisis or should conflict arise.

The lethality of firearms, especially in an impulsive situation, can make a life-or-death difference.

“If we are able to put time and distance between a person and the means to end their life, there is a good chance we'll be able to prevent that suicide and a good chance that person is not going to go on to die by suicide,” Kohlbeck said.

‘Guns are part of everybody’s lives up here’

Traeder, the suicide prevention advocate in Wausau, has been around guns her whole life and is well-aware of how often guns owners are turning firearms on themselves.

She attributes the epidemic of gun suicides in the northern part of Wisconsin to the commonness of guns, a go-it-alone attitude, and a lack of mental health resources.

Seventy-five percent of Wisconsin counties have a “significant shortage” of psychiatrists and 20 had no practicing psychiatrists at all, according to a 2018 report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum. More recent studies suggest the need has increased and the shortage only grown worse.

“Guns are part of everybody's lives up here,” Traeder said. “There's still some old adages out there — I can take care of myself and pull myself up by my own bootstraps.”

When Traeder was growing up, it was common on farms for there to be a shotgun by the door of the milkhouse for killing wild animals. No one thought anything of it, she said.

Traeder and her husband have guns in their Wausau home and they are locked up. She supports gun rights but also says people should be sure to secure guns and be alert to their own mental well-being and of others in the household.

Traeder and her husband have held guns for friends in crisis. Researchers estimate one-third of gun owners have done this.

Several years ago, Traeder and her husband were called to the home of a friend whose former spouse had just ended their life with a gun.

They sat with the friend, who was already living with depression. Before they left early the next morning, all agreed it was best the Traeders take the friend's guns.

They kept the guns in their safe for months. Just before the hunting season, the decision was made to return the guns.

“It was just kind of like a natural progression. November came along. It was time for deer season,” she said. “Everybody was on a pretty even keel.”

In a better spot today, the friend is grateful. The guns are locked up but someone else holds the keys.

‘We're a lot more alike’

Papalia, the retired Madison cop, said when she talks about gun deaths in Wisconsin she reminds people the most likely victim is a white middle-aged or older man living in a rural county.

Some people simply don’t believe it.

“That's who we are losing in droves,” she said. “These men up north are dying alone and nobody even wants to talk about it. The family has to grieve silently.”

Papalia wants to be clear that she isn’t putting more importance on one death over another. They are all important.

She hopes the Journal Sentinel’s analysis will generate more dialogue.

“I think there's a thirst or hunger for having this conversation. And if we're all having the conversation, I think we're going to find out we're a lot more alike than we are different.”

Andrew Hahn, Daphne Chen, Eva Wen and Gina Castro of the Journal Sentinel, Kevin Crowe formerly of USA Today, and Ben Schultz and Alex Rivera Grant of Marquette University's O'Brien Fellowship In Public Service Journalism contributed to this article.

Project credits

Contributing reporters: Natalie Eilbert, Alex Rivera Grant, Ben Schultz, Gina Castro

Data analysis, graphics: Andrew Hahn, Daphne Chen, Kevin Crowe, Eva Wen

Photos, video: Mike De Sisti, Bill Schulz

Story editing: Greg Borowski

Photo editing: Sherman Williams, Berford Gammon

Copy editing: Ray Hollnagel, Pete Sullivan

Design: Kyle Slagle

Social media: Ridah Syed

About this project

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter John Diedrich examined the full extent of gun deaths in Wisconsin during a nine-month O’Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism at Marquette University.

The project reveals the full picture of gun deaths in the state and tells the stories of people affected by gun deaths and those trying to find solutions.

Diedrich was assisted in the project by Marquette student researchers Alex Rivera Grant and Ben Schultz.

Marquette University and administrators of the program played no role in the reporting, editing or presentation of this project.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Rural areas, suicides play big role in Wisconsin's rising gun deaths