Guns claimed 1.1 million lives these past 30 years, and fatalities spiked by ... trends now
Guns have claimed more than 1.1 million lives in the US these past three decades, and the rising rate of deaths saw a sharp uptick of 20 percent during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to new research.
In one of the most comprehensive assessments of gun deaths in years, researchers from Emory University and Boston Children's Hospital showed that 1,110,421 people were killed by firearms between 1990 and 2021.
Gun-related deaths started climbing steadily from 2005, but that upward trajectory has accelerated in recent years, including an uptick from 2019-2021, as Covid-19 led to lockdowns and economic turmoil.
'Firearm fatalities accelerated dramatically during the Covid pandemic,' said Eric Fleegler, a Harvard Medical School professor, a physician at Boston Children's Hospital and co-author of the study.
'Multiple potential factors have likely contributed to this, including severe economic distress, an erupting mental health crisis, and a significant uptick in the sale of firearms.'
Researchers built heat maps that showed how firearm deaths were clustered in the West of the country in the 1990s, but gradually spread across the nation, with noticeable spikes in southern states
Researchers have previously described the 'panic buying' of firearms during the pandemic. One study showed that between January 2020 and April 2021, some 5.1 million Americans became gun owners for the first time.
Using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the researchers built heat maps that showed how firearm deaths were clustered
