Homicides rose nearly 30% in America last year

The Washington Post reported that the increase rate of homicide in America peaked at 29.4% in 2020, the highest since the statistics began to be compiled in the 1960s.

Quoting the FBI data, The Washington Post said the number of homicidal crimes in America (including manslaughters) jumped by 29.4% year-on-year in 2020. Homicides involving guns rose by 30.9%. In Houston alone, gun homicides soared 55% from 221 to 343 cases from 2019 to 2020.

Some analyze that COVID-19 is a factor at play. ““Having an environment in which there are slightly fewer cops,” said Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. “With more out for COVID-19 and more of them not doing proactive things, that creates a place in which people might want to carry guns around, might be prone to do bad things with those guns,” Webster added.

“Republican and Democratic elected officials disagree on what is causing the increase in homicides,” the newspaper explained. It said conservatives blame Democratic-run cities for what they say are “overly restrictive policies placed on police departments” while the Biden administration “faults the easy availability of guns as a primary reason for more deaths.”


Eun-Taek Lee nabi@donga.com