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As Gun Violence Spreads, 'It Feels Like ... No Neighborhood Is Safe'


A New York Times analysis of fatal shootings across the U.S. found that as gun violence rose during the pandemic, the carnage expanded its boundaries. Though such violence remains highly concentrated, more than 47 million Americans lived within a five-minute walk of a fatal shooting between 2020 and 2023, up from 39 million over the previous four years period.


In Columbus, Ohio, 41 percent of residents lived within a quarter mile of a fatal shooting, compared to 28 percent before the pandemic.


In Atlanta, 58 percent of residents lived near a fatal shooting during the pandemic years, up from 36 percent in the four years before 2020. In Minneapolis, half of residents were exposed, up from a third. In Portland, Ore., it was nearly a quarter-million residents, up from 100,000.


Anthony Pierson, a veteran prosecutor in Columbus, said that before COVID-19, he knew which neighborhoods to avoid. “Now it feels like really, no neighborhood is safe.”


Columbus has seen shootings at public parks and graduation parties, a children’s clothing shop, a Dairy Queen, a dollar store and an upscale nightlife district. At a water gun fight celebrating the start of summer, some people brought out real guns, killing a 17-year-old girl with a college scholarship.


In 2021, the number of killings rose to 207 in a city where most years saw closer to 100. Last year, there were 149.


In Columbus, as elsewhere, the carnage has been marked by the involvement of young people. Last June, two Columbus boys, 14 and 16, were charged in the shooting death of a girl in eighth grade. In August, a 13-year-old was arrested after a 15-year-old football player was killed near a Lululemon store at a shopping plaza.


Columbus, a city considered so typical that fast-food chains use it as a test market, is far from alone.


In New Mexico last September, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency for Albuquerque after shootings claimed the lives of an 11-year-old, a 5-year-old and a woman who confronted a group of teenagers in her stolen car.


Even though the tide of pandemic shootings and killings began to ebb last year, the improvement was uneven. Columbus closed out 2023 with more homicides than the year before — as did Dallas, Topeka, Kan., Memphis and Washington, D.C.

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A daily report co-sponsored by Arizona State University, Criminal Justice Journalists, and the National Criminal Justice Association

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