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Covid-era zoom in gun violence gives the US much to worry about

Gun violence increased by more than 30% in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new study

As if the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t enough, the United States was afflicted with an even despicable situation at a time when the coronavirus was making inroads into people’s health and ruining economies.

Gun violence increased by more than 30% in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new study by researchers at the Penn State College of Medicine.

Gun violence rise attributed to stress, domestic violence

Results of the study attribute the uptrend in gun violence to domestic violence, stress, lack of social interactions. An important reason apart from these ailments was the greater access to firearms, it has been revealed.

It is awful that gun-toting people found themselves armed and going about shooting down people even when most of the hospitals in the country were filling up with Covid-19 affected people. Even as the healthcare system continued to stay under stress over the huge inflow of patients, lack of intensive care beds and staffers, the gun violence victims added to the pressure.

It was found by researchers that every gun-related incident that happened between February 2019 and March 2021, in every state of the US. They then compared similar gun violence cases that were reported prior to the pandemic to gun violence reported during the first year of the pandemic. The results were more than enough to stay concerned.

US should be concerned over rise in gun sales

As many as 28 states had reported a higher number of shootings during the first year of the pandemic. Adding more concern, states such as Minnesota, Michigan and New York were found to have witnessed more than a 100 per cent increase in gun violence. However, Alaska gave some relief with significantly lower rates of gun violence when the pandemic was raging.

Acceleration in gun sales across the country could be seen as the main reason for the cases of violence. The research report has quoted the National Instant Criminal Background Check System saying that a 41 per cent increase was seen in the sales of handguns during March 2020, compared to the same period in 2019.

Covid-19 aside, the United States has a much more significant issue to address. And if it doesn’t do that now, it is only going to get worse.

Featured Image: Pixabay

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Sanjeev Ramachandran

A journalist with 23 years of experience, Sanjeev has worked with reputed media houses such as Business Standard, The Ne More »
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