“June, July, August are always the biggest months to shoot,” he said, adding that most major US cities have seen a 30 percent increase in shootings and killings in the summer.
Federal officials and outside experts are unsure what caused the jump in deaths in general. “One possible explanation is the stressors associated with the Covid pandemic, which could play a role, including changes and disruptions in services and education, social exclusion, housing instability and difficulties in meeting daily expenses,” said Thomas R. Simon. Associate Director of Science in the CDC Department for Violence Prevention.
The rise is also in line with accelerated sales of firearms, as the spread of the pandemic and blockade have become the norm, the CDC notes. The Americans began the excitement of buying weapons in 2020, which continued in 2021, when in one week the FBI reported a record 1.2 million inspections.
Today, gun purchases have largely returned to pre-pandemic levels, but there are about 15 million more weapons in circulation than there would be without the pandemic, according to Garon J. Wintemuth, a researcher on gun violence at the University of California, Davis.
But gun violence has many roots.
Federal researchers also cite disruptions in routine health care; protests against police use of deadly force; increase in domestic violence; unfair access to health care; and long-standing systemic racism, which contributes to poor housing conditions, limited educational opportunities and high levels of poverty.
Law enforcement and criminologists have cited not only the pandemic but also the divisive presidential election in 2020, as gun purchases tend to increase in times of deep political polarization.
And there is a feeling that is more difficult to quantify, that the psyche is broken – that citizens can more quickly turn to violence when provoked.
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