(Photo by stevepb via Pixabay)

The average rate of deaths from gun violence in Solano County was far greater than in any other Bay Area county in a recent five-year period. 

Thirteen deaths per 100,000 persons was the average rate in Solano County over the 2012-2017 period, according to a database created by the University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Solano County figure is more than three times the rate in Santa Clara County, which had the lowest rate in the region. 

Here’s the average rate of deaths due to firearms per 100,000 people in each county.1. Solano County — 132. Contra Costa County — 93. Alameda County — 84. Marin County — 65. Napa County — 66. Sonoma County — 67. San Francisco — 58. San Mateo County — 59. Santa Clara County — 4San Francisco-based United Playaz, a violence prevention and youth development group, tries on a regular basis to reduce gun violence through gun buybacks, which the group believes is effective. 

A recent buyback removed 318 guns from the streets, including 20 assault rifles The guns were melted down.  

“That’s very effective,” said Everett Butler, a facilitator for restorative justice at United Playaz who works with youth every day.  

Source: University of Wisconsin and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, United Playaz

Keith Burbank is currently a fulltime reporter covering Alameda County and Oakland news for Bay City News. He has also worked on the Data Points project for Local News Matters, finding trends and stories about the region through data. In 2019, he was a California Fellow at the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, producing a series about homeless deaths in Santa Clara County. He worked as a swing shift editor for the newswire for several years as well. Outside of journalism, Keith enjoys computer programming, math, economics and music.