U.S. mass shootings set record as gun violence surges in 2021

NEW YORK, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- The United States saw a record high of 691 mass shootings - with at least four victims in one incident - in 2021 as gun violence surged within the year.

According to the latest updates by Gun Violence Archive, an online archive tracking gun violence incidents in the United States since 2013, nearly all indexes of gun violence in 2021 set records in the organization's tracking history.

As of Dec. 31, gun violence had resulted in 44,750 deaths, including 20,660 homicides and 24,090 suicides, among them 1,533 were children and teens under 17. The number of injured was also a record high of 40,359, including 4,107 under the age of 17.

A recent CNN report based on an analysis of over 40 major cities said more than two-thirds of the country's most populous cities saw more homicides in 2021 than in 2020. At least nine major cities broke their previous annual homicide records.

Statistics from the Philadelphia police department showed that the city had recorded 557 homicides in 2021 through Wednesday, the highest total by far since 1960. While in Chicago, a populous city notorious for gun violence, more than 800 deaths were gun related in 2021, the most violent year in a quarter century. Los Angeles hit a 15-year record with near 400 gun-related deaths in 2021.

Gun violence in the United States has been a chronic social problem that seems to have no solution. Estimates from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that 17 million guns were sold in January through November of 2021, the second-highest number since 2000. A national firearms survey found that about one-third - roughly 81.4 million - of U.S. adults own a gun, the most heavily armed citizenry in the world.