While the U.S. murder rate did increase somewhat in the COVID years, it is still significantly below its peak in the early '90s. Pre-COVID, it was only about half what it was.
Sure, perhaps I shouldn't have been so figurative. The level of endemic gun violence in the United States is deeply alarming to basically all of it's other peer nations and allies. The fact that the level of gun violence is "on the decline" doesn't change the fact that there is still a shocking amount of gun violence in the United States, or the fact that an increasing number of Americans want restrictions or some form of gun control.
