Yet another record year for gun homicides here in the good ole' US of A.

[AndyS]

Latest data shows that homicide is still above last year’s historic spike — but declining. Criminal statistician Jeff Asher updated his year-to-date dashboard tracking homicide rates in 87 cities with available data. Overall, murders are currently up 9.9 percent. A number of major cities seeing large increases over 2020 include Portland (+82 percent), Las Vegas (+63 percent), Indianapolis (+34 percent), Houston (+25 percent), and Los Angeles (+21 percent). But in general, the increase still seems to be slowing. Meanwhile, a few cities have seen welcome declines this year, including St. Louis (-32 percent), Boston (-30 percent), Kansas City (-25 percent), and Jacksonville (-20 percent). The data is “suggestive of a much smaller increase nationally this year than last year,” Asher tweeted, “but a 5-10 percent increase on a 25-30 percent increase is not good.”

https://www.ahdatalytics.com/dashboards/ytd-murder-comparison/
Some will look at these numbers and say, "See, the homicide rate is falling," which of course it is not. It is simply increasing at a slower rate. 2020 grew as much as 30% over 2019 and 2021 is growing at 10% more than 2020 so 2021 will end at 40% higher than 2019. Since 2014 we have had an increase in homicides every year. Guns! The gift that keeps on giving!

The pandemic’s heavy toll of gun violence against children. In 2020, more than 5,100 people under 18 were shot, 1,000 more than at any point since Gun Violence Archive started tracking the data in 2014. Children under 11 born the brunt, with those killed seeing a 50-percent increase over 2019. A USA TODAY analysis of GVA data also found that more than half of the nation’s 50 most populous cities saw double-digit percentage rises in the number of children shot in 2020, with Chicago, St. Louis, and Philadelphia experiencing some of the worst jumps. This year’s rates of shootings of people under 18 are on pace to be even worse. Related: New reporting determined that an accidental fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy in Chula Vista, California, in July was caused by a ghost gun.

https://www.usatoday.com/restricted/ (pay wall)
Domestic abuse shootings are up too. So let's see, a pandemic that scares people so they buy guns to protect themselves from people who have guns then they get locked up under social distancing and isolation and what could possibly go wrong? Guns are the magic ingredient! They make EVERYTHING better!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. When we live in crazy times, we become crazy too. It's hard to be calm or steady.

People react irrationally when they face chaos. And then they reach for what makes them feel safe.

Guns.

[Elessar Zappa]

2. Gun violence has been going up

for several years but we’re still not near the levels that we hit in the 90s, thankfully. But until we enact meaningful gun control, we’ll continue to have huge surges in gun violence. It’s a national sickness. I don’t know what more we can do to make people care about the victims of guns. I thought Sandy Hook would open people’s eyes.

[AndyS]

3. If the trend line continues we will surpass the '90s in a few more years.

I don't want to eliminate guns entirely but way too many people who have no business with a deadly weapon just walk into a gun store and leave with one. Other countries do a much better job of regulating both guns and the people who can get them.