U.S. gun violence on rise year after year: Modern Diplomacy

NEW YORK, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The United States is witnessing a surge in gun violence as the gun purchase rate has reached its highest levels in 2020 and 2021, with an estimated 43 million guns bought at a time when the rate of gun deaths also hit the highest records, reported Modern Diplomacy on Monday.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 4,222 people died from gun-related injuries in the United States in 2020, which includes gun murders and gun suicides.

Gun violence has experienced a significant rise in recent years. In 2020, 54 percent of all gun-related deaths in the United States were suicides (24,292), and 43 percent were murders (19,384). The remaining gun deaths were unintentional (535), involved law enforcement (611), or had undetermined circumstances (400), according to a Pew research.

"The total number of deaths represents 14 percent increase from the previous year, a 25 percent increase from five years earlier, and a 43 percent increase from a decade prior," said the report.

On a per capita basis, there were 13.6 gun deaths per 100,000 people in 2020, the highest rate since the mid-1990s. The states with the highest rates are Mississippi (28.6 per 100,000 people), Louisiana (26.3), Wyoming (25.9), Missouri (23.9) and Alabama (23.6), it added.