Gun Deaths Increased Significantly Under Lockdowns

By Mark Gruber | Saturday, 14 May 2022 05:15 AM
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Gun Deaths Increased Significantly Under Lockdowns

The rate of U.S. gun deaths increased 35% in 2020 to the highest point since 1994, with particularly deadly levels for young Black men, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in a report published on Tuesday.

Killings with firearms increased most among youth and young adults, at 40 percent for those ages 10 to 24, according to ABC News.

African Americans as a whole are four times more likely to be killed by a gun than the overall population and 12 times more likely than a White person, the data revealed.

Increased gun violence linked to the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 has been widely noted previously, with an FBI report last year revealing homicides rose 30 percent.

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The CDC report placed the rate of homicides caused by firearms at the highest level in 26 years, while noting disparities based on race, ethnicity, and poverty.

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“These stats have devastating effects on families, schools and entire communities, and have lasting consequences on us as individuals and as a society,” Thomas Simon, associate director for science at the CDC’s Division of Violence Prevention, explained to reporters on Tuesday. “Our reports contain statistics and numbers, but it’s also important to reflect on the individual lives lost, and even one homicide or suicide is too many,” he stated.

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The firearm homicide rate, measured per 100,000 people, increased from 4.6 in 2019 to 6.1 in 2020, the report announced, with a strong correlation to poverty.

Among African Americans, the rate was 26.6 deaths per 100,000, a 39.5% increase over 2019. For white Americans, the rate was 2.2 per 100,000.

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By raw numbers, there were 19,350 gun homicides in 2020, with African Americans accounting for 62 percent of the total and white people 21 percent.

Gun suicides, measured separately, totaled 24,245 in 2020. The rate of 8.1 gun suicides per 100,000 people was little changed from 7.9 in 2019.

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The study found the reasons for widening inequality were “unclear and potentially complex,” stressing the COVID-19 pandemic might have “exacerbated existing social and economic stressors.” Though race played a distinct role, other minorities were found to have higher rates of gun deaths.

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“Longstanding systemic inequities and structural racism have resulted in limited economic, housing, and educational opportunities associated with inequities in risk for violence and other health conditions among various racial and ethnic groups,” the report stated.

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