(Relevant) On Sunday, five people including a pregnant woman were killed in Indianapolis, in what’s being hailed as the city’s worst mass shooting in a decade. As of this writing, police do not have any leads on the shooter or shooters, but it’s another part of a grim trend in the U.S. that, contrary to popular belief, has not abated. Over the course of 2020, a truism started floating around that whatever the downsides of self-isolation, one of the perks was a sudden drop in the spate of mass shootings that have plagued the U.S. in recent years. It was a comforting silver lining in a year in dire need of some. Unfortunately, it turns out to just not be true.
That’s according to the most recent stats from Gun Violence Archives, a non-profit that keeps track of all gun-related violence in the U.S. They’ve been keeping track of gun violence since 2013, which rose through most of the decade before taking a sharp dip in 2019. In 2018, there were 55,137 incidents of gun violence reported, with 14,879 total deaths and 337 mass shootings. In 2019, there were 39,525 total incidents, with 15,435 deaths and 417 mass shootings.