The Missouri chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety’s grassroots networks, released the following statement on the death of Dominique Lucious, a 26-year-old Black transgender woman who was shot and killed in Springfield, Missouri yesterday.
“Our hearts go out to Dominique’s friends, family, and community,” said Zachary Mallory, volunteer with the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action. “Violence against trans people, especially Black trans women, is tragically frequent and fueled by hate. The trans community deserves better, and we can do better by taking action on gun safety to prevent more lives like Dominique’s from being cut short.”
Dominique Lucious is at least the 12th reported trans person killed in 2021, although it’s likely there have been more deaths that have gone unreported or victims have been misgendered. Last year was the deadliest year on record for trans and gender nonconforming people in the U.S. after 38 people were killed. Some trends from 2017 to 2020 that are likely to continue:
- Guns are the most frequently used weapon in the murder of trans people. Three-fourths of trans people killed in America were killed with a gun.
- Black trans women account for the majority of homicide victims in the trans community. To put this into perspective, while Black people make up 16% of the trans population, 75% of known trans homicide victims between 2017 and 2020 were Black.
Dominique is not the first trans person to be killed in Missouri. Since 2017, six other trans women have been killed in the state, almost all of them were Black and killed with guns. This puts Missouri in the top ten states with the most homicides of trans or gender noncomforming people.
Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund has tracked homicides of transgender and gender non-comforming people in the U.S since 2017. In addition to breaking down gun violence to the state- and county-level, the platform includes a database of known trans or gender nonconforming homicide victims in the United States. As the numbers show, violence against the trans community is inherently linked to guns and 2020 was the deadliest year on record.
Missouri continues to face over 1,200 gun deaths a year and has the fifth highest rate of gun deaths in the nation. Altogether, gun homicides, assaults, and police shootings cost the state $9.8 billion each year. Read more about gun violence in Missouri here.