Newly released statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to a sharp rise in 2020 gun homicides that disproportionately affected the nation’s poorest areas and Black communities — affirming what St. Louisans were able to see with their own eyes that year. It might also come as no surprise that Missouri, with some of the nation’s most firearm-friendly laws, ranked fourth in the country for the rate of gun homicides in 2020.
As long as the morally bankrupt National Rifle Association continues to dominate the campaign funding that bends national and state lawmakers — particularly Republicans — to its will, the nation’s gun laws are unlikely to change anytime soon. Those lawmakers approve the measures loosening gun restrictions and restraining efforts to keep firearms out of criminals’ hands, but they dump the burden on local law enforcers to deal with the bloody aftermath.
“Young persons, males, and Black persons consistently have the highest firearm homicide rates, and these groups experienced the largest increases in 2020,” a new CDC report says. “These increases represent the widening of long-standing disparities in firearm homicide rates.” Suicide continues to rank as the biggest contributor to gun death-rate statistics.
