Shootings spiked during the pandemic. The spike now looks like a 'new normal'

When the U.S. homicide rate jumped nearly 30% in 2020, experts hoped it was a temporary blip — a fleeting symptom of pandemic pressures and civil unrest.

“I lost a couple of people around that time, due to gun violence,” says LaMaria Pope, who works for a youth outreach program in the Seattle area called “Choose 180.”

Three summers later, she says that violence persists, and young people are more likely to be armed with a gun.