On the 23rd, a man plays the cello in front of King Superus, a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, USA, mourning the victims of the previous day’s shooting. Boulder = Reuters Yonhap News
In the past year, 20,000 people were shot and killed in the United States. Most often in the last 20 years. This is the aftermath of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19) pandemic.
According to data from the’Archive of Gun Violence’ cited by the Washington Post (WP) on the 24th (local time), 19,380 people were killed in shootings in the United States last year. WP explains that this is the highest number in the last 20 years. The Gun Violence Archive is a collection of shooting cases.
The number of people injured by shootings also increased by 8,000 from 2018, reaching 40,000, and 24,000 people killed themselves using firearms.
WP quoted experts and analyzed that the spread of Corona 19 affected crime prevention activities, increased unemployment, and increased stress, which affected the increase in gun deaths. Professor Ronnie Dunn of Cleveland State University in the United States said, “If you combine shooting killings and suicides, more than 100 people die with firearms a day.”
The WP also said about 300 children were shot dead in the United States last year, a 50% increase from 2019. Last year, due to Corona 19, students did not go to school for a considerable period of time, and there were very few firearms incidents at school. WP’s interpretation is that it is a number that shows the severity of suicide and domestic violence.
Gun purchases have skyrocketed. When the WP aggregated it based on federal government data related to background checks, 23 million guns were sold last year, an increase of 64% from 2019.
There were relatively few shooting incidents. Last year, there was one case every 73 days on average, compared to 2019, which was one on the 36th, and 2017 and 2018, which was one on the 45th.
Kwon Gyeong-seong reporter [email protected]
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