Until two lethal rampages this month, mass shootings had largely been absent from headlines during the coronavirus pandemic.
But people were still dying – at a record rate.
In 2020, gun violence killed nearly 20,000 Americans, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive, more than any other year in at least two decades. An additional 24,000 people died by suicide with a gun.
The vast majority of these tragedies happen far from the glare of the national spotlight, unfolding instead in homes or on city streets and – like the Covid-19 crisis – disproportionately affecting communities of colour.
Last week’s shootings at spas in the Atlanta area and Monday’s shooting at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, killed a combined 18 people and rejuvenated a national effort to overhaul gun laws. But high-profile mass shootings such as those tend to overshadow the instances of everyday violence that account for most gun deaths, potentially clouding some people’s understanding of the problem and complicating the country’s response, experts say.
Shooting deaths in 2020 outpaced the next-highest recent year, 2017, by more than 3,600. The rise resembles other alarming trends: last year, the United States saw the highest one-year increase in homicides since it began keeping records, with the country’s largest cities suffering a 30 per cent spike. Gunshot injuries also rose dramatically, to nearly 40,000, over 8,000 more than in 2017.
“More than 100 Americans are killed daily by gun violence,” Ronnie Dunn, a professor of urban studies at Cleveland State University, said, using a figure that includes suicides. “The majority are in black and brown communities. We don’t really focus on gun violence until we have these mass shootings, but it’s an ongoing, chronic problem that affects a significant portion of our society.”
Researchers say the pandemic probably fuelled the increases in several ways. The spread of the coronavirus hampered anti-crime efforts, and the attendant shutdowns compounded unemployment and stress at a time when schools and other community programmes were closed or online. They also note the apparent collapse of public confidence in law enforcement that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
