Mass shootings increased during the COVID-19 pandemic starting in May 2020, a new study finds.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Chicago looked at mass shootings in 2020 compared to previous years.
They found that 88 shootings occurred in July 2020 in comparison with 42 in July 2019 and 45 in July 2018.
In addition, an average of three more people were injured each day in 2020 mass shootings compared to previous years.
The team says the findings suggest that mass shootings may be influenced by social and economic factors.
Mass shootings rose dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study finds
The study found that the U.S. saw 88 mass shootings in July 2020 amid the Covid pandemic, twice as many as July 2019 and 2018
The U.S. sees more mass shootings than almost any other country in the world.
According to one analysis by NPR, the U.S. saw four gun violence deaths for every 100,000 people in 2019 - about 100 times higher than the gun violence death rates in South Korea, the UK, and other developed nations.
Experts attribute America's high gun violence rate to limited gun restrictions, little investment in community institutions that may prevent violence and other issues.
Mass shootings in the U.S. often occur in response to heightened social tension - which has been common throughout the pandemic.
A new study shows that, indeed, mass shootings increased nationwide in 2020 after Covid hit the country.
The research, published on Thursday in JAMA Network Open, was conducted by Pablo Peña, economist at the University of Chicago and Anupam Jena, healthcare policy expert at Harvard Medical School.
The researchers utilized public data on mass shootings from Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that compiles gun violence incidents from thousands of law enforcement, media, and government sources.
Gun Violence Archive specifically defines mass shootings as 'shootings in which 4 or more people
