Not even a deadly pandemic has halted the spread of another scourge: gun violence in American cities. Despite stay-at-home orders, some cities are seeing similar, or even higher, homicide figures. Meanwhile, some police forces are overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases in their ranks.
A car pulled up to a convenience store, and four people hopped out. One had a baseball bat. What ensued was a fight over $180, one participant later said.
By the time it was over, guns were drawn, shots were exchanged, and one bullet tore into a nearby car, striking the head of five-year-old Kearria Attison.
The girl died. Before fleeing the scene, one of the people involved reportedly offered the girl’s mother a quick apology.
Several people now face murder charges for the deadly shooting in Jacksonville, Fla., on April 6, which police say involved individuals with violent pasts.
“Too bad these criminals haven’t taken time off during the COVID-19 outbreak,” one woman posted on the police department’s Facebook page.
Some preliminary data suggests she’s right.
It does indeed appear that not even a deadly pandemic has halted the spread of another scourge in the United States: gun violence.
This despite lockdown orders, a historic pause in school shootings, and statistical evidence that people aren’t moving around much these days.
That grim reality has been underscored in Canada, too, which experienced the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history last weekend in Nova Scotia. In Toronto, there have been dozens of shootings since early March.
Overall, killings are down slightly in Toronto compared to last year. In some American cities, there’s been no slowdown at all.
In fact, some U.S. cities have seen an increase.
Gang shootings ‘do not slow down’
Mark Bryant, who tracks U.S. shootings for the Gun Violence Archive, said it will take a while to properly analyze the data for the COVID-19 pandemic.
But what he detects so far is an increase in gang shootings and domestic violence, amid a drop in workplace and school shootings.
“[Gang shootings] are like the Energizer bunny — they do not slow down. They’re as consistent as can be,” he said.
Shootings were more frequent than normal in Detroit early this month. They were also higher in Washington, D.C. While other crimes were down, the city website registered 12 homicides over the last month, up from six in the same period last year.
“Unfortunately, gun crimes are mostly unchanged,” is how Washington’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, put it during a news conference this week.
Even with New York City paralyzed by the pandemic, homicide trends have barely budged. Data released by the NYPD shows 18 homicides in a 28-day period ending April 12 compared to 20 for the same period last year. The data doesn’t specify how many were caused by guns.
Last weekend alone in Chicago, at least five people were killed and 28 were wounded by gun violence. Killings are down this spring compared with March-April 2019, but the overall annual numbers are still up.
After six people were shot this month at a large party in an apartment complex in Bakersfield, Calif., several people fumed on the county sheriff’s Facebook page. “Churches can’t meet or they face trouble but a lawless group gathers,” said a post from Norma Jean Onyschuk.
Some historical perspective
The long-term trend isn’t totally bleak.
Gun violence is still short of its worst peaks in the 1970s a