More than 500 individuals in the U.S. have been killed or wounded in road-rage shootings in 2021, the “worst year on record” for gun violence on streets and highways, in response to evaluation launched Monday by Everytown for Gun Safety.
It’s unclear what’s inflicting the rise in violence on the highway, however gun-safety advocates recommend pandemic-related stressors and document will increase in gun purchases could also be components.
Last year, practically 400 individuals have been wounded and 130 extra have been fatally shot throughout encounters with aggressive drivers, in comparison with 225 injured and 68 killed in 2019. In a mean month in 2021, 44 individuals have been shot in road-rage incidents, which was double the pre-pandemic common, in response to Everytown, a nonprofit that advocates gun management.
“Given the recent spike in gun sales in the United States, combined with the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda, it’s no surprise we’re seeing crisis levels of road rage involving guns,” Shannon Watts, founding father of Moms Demand Action, stated in an announcement. “We will not accept a new normal in which the retaliation for a honked horn is gunfire.”
In 2020, the FBI carried out practically 40 million firearm background checks, greater than any year on document, in response to the company’s knowledge. There have been practically 39 million firearm background checks in 2021. That year, Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting, a consulting and analysis agency, estimated that 14.8 million weapons have been purchased from January to September.
While there have been fewer drivers on the highway in 2020 due to the pandemic, AAA stated it’s unclear whether or not site visitors elevated the next year.
Meanwhile, site visitors fatalities appeared to have elevated at a document tempo in the primary 9 months of 2021, in response to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In a projection this February, the company stated that an estimated 31,720 individuals died in motorized vehicle crashes from January via September 2021, essentially the most in the primary 9 months of any year since 2006.
Road-rage shootings don’t seem to point out indicators of slowing down, in response to Everytown, which used the Gun Violence Archive’s database to investigate road-rage incidents involving a gun. So far in 2022, there have already been not less than 114 incidents of road-rage shootings. Arizona, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin had the best charges of road-rage shootings, in response to Everytown’s evaluation.
In an announcement, Sarah Burd-Sharps, director of analysis for Everytown for Gun Safety, blamed America’s quick access to weapons.
“Driving gets heated in plenty of other countries, but only in the U.S. is someone shot and injured or killed every 17 hours in a road-rage incident,” Burd-Sharps stated. “We’ve seen a national increase in shootings during the pandemic, and this increase has played out on our streets and highways, too.”