Gun violence spiked in first year of pandemic, CDC finds

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. saw the highest firearm homicide rate in more than 25 years, according to a new analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Firearms were involved in 79 percent of all homicides in 2020, an increase of nearly 35 percent from 2019. The largest increases in 2020 were among young Black males, between the ages of 10 and 44.