U.S. gun death rates have surged at a record pace during the COVID-19 pandemic and are rising the fastest among Black men, according to a sweeping new study published Tuesday.
The federal government recorded 1,110,421 shooting deaths and gun suicides between 1990 and 2021.
In those 32 years, the rate of gun deaths from all causes jumped by almost 50% from a low of 10 for every 100,000 Americans in 2004 to 14.9 per 100,000 people in 2021, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open.
The rate spiked by 26% from 2019 to 2021 alone as firearms fatalities hit a record high of 48,944 last year, seven doctors reported in the journal.