Happy holidays, Bulletin readers.
While The Trace’s regular newsletter service is on pause until January 4, here’s a rundown of the numbers that may stand out when the story of guns and gun violence in 2020 is entered into the annals.
40 percent — the rise in gun sales through November compared to the previous single-year record. [The Trace]
At least 50 percent — the year-to-date increase in homicides in more than a dozen big cities. [The Trace]
3,010 — estimated number of people injured and killed in mass shootings. Despite shutdowns and stay-at-home orders, the number of shootings with four or more victims increased 50.5 percent in 2020 and reached the highest level since the Gun Violence Archive began tracking. A disproportionate share of the year’s mass shootings struck Black neighborhoods. [Gun Violence Archive/The Trace]
989 — the number of people shot and killed by police. On-duty law enforcement police officers across the country have fatally shot nearly 1,000 people annually over the past five years. In May — the month of George Floyd’s death — police shot and killed 110 people, the most of any month since The Washington Post began tracking such incidents in 2015. [The Washington Post]
1 in 38 — the share of Black men who will be killed by gun violence if current death rates hold. [The American Journal of Medicine]
At least $2 billion — how much police misconduct settlements have cost the 20 American cities and counties with the largest forces since 2015. New York City accounted for just over half the total. [The Wall Street Journal]
378 — preliminary count of the number of times that members of militias or far-right groups committed acts of violence against, threatened, or otherwise interfered with racial justice protesters and intimidated voters in 2020. [Political Research Associates]
61 percent — the share of survey respondents who said crime was a major problem in the United States. The same poll found that only 13 percent said crime was a major problem in their own community. [The New York Times]
20 — states (plus the District of Columbia) that have now enacted extreme risk protection orders, commonly known as red flag laws or gun violence restraining orders. Two states, New Mexico and Virginia, joined the list in 2020. [The Trace]
$5 million — the National Rifle Association’s direct spending so far on the January 6 U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia. That’s compared to the just over $7 million the gun group spent on congressional races during the regular 2020 cycle. The outlay splits about evenly in support of Republican Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler against Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. [The Trace]
Less than 30 seconds — the duration of a special session on police reform called by the Democratic governor of Wisconsin, following the shooting of Jacob Blake. GOP lawmakers brought the session to a close without addressing any proposals. [NBC News]
