Monterey County ranks 4th in gun homicides per capita from 2010 to 2020 in California, says study

MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- In a new study that compiled gun homicide statistics in California, there were only three other counties higher than Monterey County you were more likely to get shot and killed in per 100,000 people.

Hope and Heal released a map in partnership with Romo GIS Enterprise analyzing gun data representing the density of gun homicides in California counties between 2010 and 2020 as well as from 2014 and 2022.

From 2010 to 2020 Monterey County had 419 total gun homicides. With a population of 432,977 at the time that averages to 8.88 gun homicides per 100,000 people over that ten-year span.

Only Trinity, Modoc and San Joaquin Counties had more gun homicides per capita.

While obviously, other counties had more gun homicides overall, like Alameda, San Bernadino Riverside, and Los Angeles Counties having over 1,000 murders in that time period. Those counties have more than double Monterey Counties' population, sometimes as much as more than 20 times the population like in LA County.

However, in the last eight years from 2014 to 2022, Monterey County has seen 225 gun homicides. In 2020 Monterey County had 13 gun homicides, in 2021 there were 28 gun homicides and in 2022 there were 17 gun-related homicides in the county.

At the current pace, Monterey County is expected to have 193 gun-related homicides. That is less than half the previous decades' total.

From 2014 to 2022 Santa Cruz County had 48 gun homicides and San Benito County had 7.