That is a deeply misleading statistic. Gun violence sharply increased in 2020. Possibly foreshadowing Trump losing the election [/s] but more probably related to the effects of COVID. Here is an article on that.
Gun Violence and COVID-19 in 2020
A Year of Colliding Crises
5.7.2021
Introduction
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the first US death from COVID-19 on March 1, 2020. One year later, there were over 28.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and 515,700 deaths.1 Over this same period, the gun violence epidemic has also surged.
Record increases in gun sales, children homebound like never before, social isolation, and economic struggles due to COVID-19 put many people at increased risk for gun violence. In fact, 2020 was one of the deadliest years on record for the United States. Gun homicides and non-suicide-related shootings took approximately 19,300 lives, a 25 percent increase from 2019.2 While official 2020 data on all gun deaths is not yet available, an Everytown analysis of data from Gun Violence Archive reveals that gun violence-related deaths in 2020 will likely exceed 40,000, a rate of 12.3 gun deaths per 100,000 people.3 This translates to the highest rate of gun deaths in the last two decades.4
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Key Findings - The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the impact of our country’s gun violence crisis. There were 3,906 additional firearm deaths and 9,278 additional firearm injuries in 2020 compared to 2019.
- Cities saw historic levels of violence last year. Three in four big-city law enforcement agencies saw increases in firearm homicides in 2020. And as the coronavirus has rolled across the country, the impacts of both COVID-19 and gun violence have not been evenly felt. Black Americans, while not more susceptible to contracting the disease, are nearly twice as likely as white Americans to die from COVID-19. They are also 10 times as likely as white people to die by firearm homicide.
- Gun sales have surged during the coronavirus pandemic. Based on the number of background checks, Everytown estimates that people purchased 22 million guns in 2020, a 64 percent increase over 2019.
- Unintentional shooting deaths by children increased by nearly one-third comparing incidents in March to December of 2020 to the same months in 2019. The pandemic saw millions of children out of school while gun sales hit record highs, bringing more guns into homes. This resulted in a tragic surge in the number of children accessing firearms and unintentionally shooting themselves or someone else.
- Domestic violence spikes during times of prolonged emotional and financial stress. Stay-at-home orders and reduced capacity in shelters left domestic violence victims trapped with abusive partners. Too many of these abusers had easy access to guns. Data from over 40 states showed about half of domestic violence service providers surveyed saw an increase in gun threats toward survivors of intimate partner violence in their communities during the pandemic.
- Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a rise in violence against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, particularly against AAPI women. Violence against women and the AAPI community, fueled by hate, is made more deadly by easy access to guns.
more at everytownresearch.org |
