Gun deaths rise in first year of pandemic, CDC


Gun deaths hit the highest level ever recorded in the United States in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control reported on Tuesday. Notably, gun-related homicides have increased by 35 percent, which has resulted in an unprecedented toll on Black men, agency researchers said.

CDC’s deputy director and director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Dr. “This is a historic increase, with the rate reaching its highest level in over 25 years,” said Debra E. Houry. A news briefing on Tuesday.

“We need to be vigilant when addressing the conditions and observed inequalities that contribute to murders and suicides.”

More than 45,000 Americans died in gun-related incidents as the epidemic spread across the United States, the highest number on record, according to federal data. But more than half of gun deaths were suicides, and that number did not increase significantly from 2019 to 2020.

The CDC said the overall increase in gun deaths was 15 percent in 2020, lower than the percent increase in gun homicides.

The rise in gun homicides was the largest one-year increase in modern history, according to Ari Davis, a policy adviser at the Johns Hopkins Center for Armed Violence Resolutions, who recently published her own analysis of CDC data.

He said initial numbers show gun deaths remain consistently high in 2021.

Federal officials and outside experts aren’t sure what’s causing the spike in gun deaths. The CDC noted that the increase corresponded to rapid gun sales as the pandemic spread and curfew became the norm.

But federal researchers also cited increased social, economic, and psychological stressors; disruptions in routine health care; tensions between police and community members following the murder of George Floyd; increase in domestic violence; unequal access to healthcare; and long-standing systemic racism that contributes to poor housing conditions, limited educational opportunities and high poverty rates.

Firearms-related homicides were generally highest and showed the greatest increases in poorer communities.

“One possible explanation is that stress factors associated with the Covid pandemic may play a role, including change and disruption to services and education, social isolation, housing instability and difficulty meeting daily expenses,” said Thomas R. Simon, associate director of science. the agency’s violence prevention division.

Black Americans continued to be disproportionately affected by gun violence in 2020. Firearm homicide rates rose 39.5 percent among Black people from 2019 to 2020 to 11,904. The victims were overwhelmingly young men.

Johns Hopkins analysis found that Black Americans accounted for 38 percent of all gun murder victims in 2020, but only represented 2 percent of the U.S. population.

Black men aged 15 to 34 were 20 times more likely to be killed by a gun than white men of the same age. Mr Davis said the number of Black women killed by guns also increased by almost 50 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.

The CDC said rates of gun-related homicides are increasing across all racial and ethnic groups — except for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, who saw a small decline..

Gun-related suicides have long been more common among older white men. But in 2020, rates rose sharply, mostly among Native Americans and Alaska Native groups.

“Suicides affect a diverse population in rural communities, which typically includes middle-aged to older white men,” said Mr Davis. “We will need to develop different types of solutions to deal with different types of gun violence.”



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *