To set the stage, let me quote a recent Washington Post article (April 21, 2022) that paints the picture here in the United States better than I can. 

“The shootings rippled across the country this month, a steady drumbeat of tragedy stretching from coast to coast. Six people killed in downtown Sacramento. More than a dozen shot at a Dallas concert. Two killed, and more wounded, in a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, nightclub. Ten shot aboard a Brooklyn subway train at the height of the morning commute. Then, this weekend, nine people were shot at a shopping mall in Columbia, S.C. And hours later, two teenagers were killed, and more injured, during a shooting at a house party in Pittsburgh. The stream of shootings comes amid a grim backdrop of increased gun violence nationwide, and at a time when mayors, police chiefs and mediators working on the streets to curb the bloodshed were already reporting a disturbing shift. Grievances or minor slights that might have once led to fistfights, they said, were instead suddenly escalating to gunfire. In some of the recent shootings that left numerous people dead or injured, officials said the gunfire appeared to be tied to disputes among people or groups gathered in public or crowded areas. But this violence underscored that shootings leaving several people injured or killed are up significantly compared with before the pandemic, and the ongoing toll has public officials and others fearful heading into the summer months.” 

This problem is not confined to the traditional shootings that occur in the United States. A recent article in the Baltimore Sun pointed out that increased violence in many areas is already apparent. 

Reports of road rage shootings hit a record high last year. As the advocacy organization Everytown for Gun Safety noted, “a person was shot and either injured or killed in a road rage incident every 17 hours, on average, during 2021.” 

Last year was also the worst year on record for unruly passenger behavior on flights. People are not only spitting, cursing, using racial slurs and punching the backs of seats, they are also punching other people. One Southwest Airlines flight attendant even had a few of her teeth chipped after a passenger attacked her last year. 

In January, CNN published an article about the number of unruly-passenger incidents that rose to the point of needing to be investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration. 

“From 1995 to 2020 an average of 182 investigations were initiated per year,” the network reported. “In 2021 the FAA initiated 1,081 investigations — a 494% increase over the historic average of investigations.” 

We have also seen a surge in violent crime, especially gun violence. Countries such as Spain, Britain and Germany have not had the same surge, a disparity that an article published in Time magazine  (Violent Crime in the U.S. Is Surging. But We Know What to Do About It) in January attributed in part to the hyper-politicization of American politics.” 

[It is also worth noting that violent crime in Canada and Mexico are also not seeing a similar increase to what is occurring in the United States.] 

And this is not new, as another article in the Washington Post entitled “We don’t know why violent crime is up. But we know there’s more than one cause.” from last July explains. 

“The United States saw about 25 percent more homicides in 2020 than in 2019, based on preliminary data released by the FBI — the largest single-year increase in the homicide rate since reliable tracking began in 1960. The current rate — 6.2 homicides per 100,000 residents, if the same 25 percent increase is applied to last year’s rate — is the highest recorded in the United States in more than 20 years. In America’s largest cities and, in particular, the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods within those cities, the rise in violence has been the most pronounced.” 

And finally, while perceptions of violent crime and reality are not always the same, the murder rate and the identification of violent crime as a big problem are following the same increased curve according to the Pew Research Center.  

And, from the people at Gallup.