By Abené Clayton, Photo: Shannon Stapleton/Reuters, The Guardian, April 19, 2022
In the first year of the pandemic, homicides throughout the US increased by 30%, the most dramatic one-year rise since the FBI began keeping crime data.
The increase was driven by a significant rise in gun violence, with shootings ticking up in cities big and small, in states led by Republicans and Democrats alike. Since then, curbing the rise in shootings has become a central topic among candidates vying for midterm election success. It has also prompted policy shifts from mayors across the country and recall challenges for progressive prosecutors in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
As in previous decades, the impact of the rise in violence has been most felt in America’s Black and brown communities. Homicides in 2020 were concentrated among Black Americans who, despite making up 14% of the population, represented more than half of the 2020 victims, according to the FBI data. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for Black males ages 15-34, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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