Candlelight vigil image highlights and remembers the victims of violence.
Candlelight vigil image highlights and remembers the victims of violence.

Gun violence spiked during pandemic, even as the deadliest mass shootings waned

Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, an assistant professor who researches violence prevention at the University of California, Davis said that the COVID-19 pandemic likely played a major role in contributing to the rising violence.

"The COVID-19 pandemic worsened many of the underlying conditions that contribute to community gun violence risk — poverty, unemployment, food and housing insecurity — while also taxing many of the systems and interpersonal networks of support in communities that foster safety, health and wellbeing," she said. "These, in combination with the pandemic’s unique effects on feelings of uncertainty and hopelessness, likely had an impact on the increase in interpersonal community gun violence over the past year."

Via PolitiFact

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