Citation

Sutherland M, McKenney M, Elkbuli A. Am. J. Emerg. Med. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ajem.2020.05.006

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

COVID-19 has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Or- ganization (WHO). The structure of daily life for most individuals in the United States (US) has changed dramatically. Businesses, schools, and entire industries have been forced to substitute in- person activities for remote/virtual replacements in compliance with recommendations of social distancing from the CDC. This prac- tice has decreased the COVID-19 transmission and is essential to the eventual resolution of this pandemic [1]. As people practice social distancing, the trends of traumatic injuries are changing as well, with fewer vehicle related crashes and injuries as people minimize their driving [2]. Trends in other types of traumatic injury are un- clear. In 2017, the number of gun-related injuries/deaths surpassed the number of vehicle related injuries/deaths in the US [3]. We aim to investigate the trends of gun related violence in selected heavily populated US cities during the COVID-19 pandemic and discuss the implications.

We performed a cross-sectional analysis to investigate gun violence in New York City (NY), Chicago, Baltimore and Los Angeles since the be- ginning of the 2020. Data was gathered from the Police Departments (PDs) of each city and from the FBI. Trends were determined by compar- ing gun related incidents/victims/deaths where applicable to 2018 and 2019 to determine what effect, if any, COVID-19 has had on gun violence.

According to the NYPD, as of April 4 there has been 172 shooting incidents which represent an 11.7% increase compared to 2019 and an 18.6% increase compared to 2018 [4]. Similarly, the Baltimore PD reports 180 shooting incidents as of April 4, a 2.0% increase com- pared to 2019 [5]. In Chicago, the PD reports 516 shooting incidents since for 2020, a 23% increase compared to 2019 and a 6% increase compared to 2018 [6]. In contrast, Los Angeles PD reports a 9.3% de- crease compared to 2019 but 10.3% increase compared to 2018 (Fig. 1) [7]. For the heavily populated cities of NY, Chicago and Baltimore, there is a paradoxical trend of increased gun related violence in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. We offer several possible explanations.

Language: en