Murder rate climbed 29% in 2020, amid gun stockpiling and pandemic pressures

Murders rose nearly 30% nationwide last year, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Uniform Crime Report data released Monday, which revealed the greatest percentage of  homicides involving guns on record, amid the pandemic's onset.

Homicides and manslaughter jumped 29.4% from 2019 to 2020, the largest year-to-year spike since the federal government began tracking violent crime in the 1960s. Though well below the peak of U.S. killings in the 1980s and early 1990s, 4,901 additional killings were carried out in 2020, compared to 2019. 

The FBI tabulated more than 21,500 murders last year – a wave that largely corresponds with the coronavirus pandemic's 18-month course and amounts to about 6.5 per 100,000 people.