The COVID-19 vaccine has been linked to, at most, the death of one American. So far in 2021, 12,906 Americans have died from gun violence.
A woman who received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine later died from a serious blood-clotting condition, leading the federal government to temporarily pause the rollout of that particular vaccine. Experts continue to investigate the potential link between the vaccine and the clotting condition.
In 2020, 43,550 people died from all gun violence-related causes, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The figures don’t break down the violence by type of weapon. The Rockefeller Institute of Government reports that assault rifles were used in 67 of 340 U.S. mass shootings between 1966 and 2016, resulting in 351 deaths. On average, mass shootings with assault rifles were more deadly than mass shootings with other guns.