Remember all those trolls who asked what Democratic leaders in cities are doing to prevent gun violence? It’s time they answered what Republicans are going to do about the problem, given that new data shows homicides by gun rocketing skyward during the Trump administration, the New York Times reports.
The US gun death rate was 10.6 per 100,000 people in 2016, Barack Obama’s last year in office, which saw a slight spike in the statistic from the previous year after dropping the first seven years of his time in office. By the time Trump left office, the gun death rate in the US had jumped to around 14 per 100,000, with 43% being suicides, 54% being homicides and the remainder various causes like accidents or misfires.
Per Pew Research, the states most impacted by gun deaths were in the southern and midwestern states, which have traditionally celebrated their willingness to let nearly anyone buy and carry a gun. Louisiana, Mississippi and Wyoming had the highest death-by-firearm rates.
