US gun deaths increased by 35% during the early covid-19 pandemic

US gun deaths increased by 35% from 2019 to 2020, the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, and continued to rise in 2021, reaching the highest level in 30 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported.1

Both gun homicides and gun suicides increased but the gun suicide rate was higher than the gun homicide rate in 2021, the report said, relying on provisional data for 2021. Previous reports have indicated that gun violence had increased during the pandemic.23

There were an estimated 20 966 gun murders and 26 320 gun suicides in 2021, “resulting in the highest percentage of homicides in more than 50 years and the highest percentage of suicides since 2001,” the report said. There were increases among both men and women, with the highest rates in the …