Speaking on National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, Sonali Rajan, Associate Professor of Health Education, reflected on a record-breaking year for gun homicides in America, when nearly 20,000 people lost their lives due to gun violence.

There were several reasons for that nearly 25 percent jump from 2019, said Rajan, Co-Founder of the Columbia Scientific Union for the Reduction of Gun Violence (SURGE). Certainly the “collective trauma, grief, economic anxiety, stress that all were exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic” was a contributing factor. So, too, was the increase in gun sales, with 2 million firearms sold in March alone. Rajan also noted that “public resources simply were diverted due to the pandemic,” resulting in “the work of violence interrupters, social programs and support services not being as readily available.” And she pointed to the role of institutionalized racism, exacerbated by police violence against people of color. “Police officers are three times more likely to fatally shoot a Black individual than a White individual, for example. And we saw this year racism intersecting in a way with gun violence and with the COVID pandemic that really took its toll on Black and Brown communities in particular.”

We saw this year racism intersecting in a way with gun violence and with the COVID pandemic that really took its toll on Black and Brown communities in particular.

—Sonali Rajan, Associate Professor of Health Education 

There are policy changes that could help reduce gun violence, Rajan said, such as a federal assault weapons ban, large-capacity magazine bans and the tightening of background check laws. But she also urged getting at “the root causes of some of this kind of violence” through measures such as improved housing conditions, creation of additional green space and investment in mental health interventions.

I am hoping that President-elect Biden and his administration will prioritize the prevention of gun violence as the public health crisis that it is.

—Sonali Rajan, Associate Professor of Health Education 

“I am hoping that President-elect Biden and his administration will prioritize the prevention of gun violence as the public health crisis that it is,” Rajan concluded, and “that they will see the prevention of gun violence as an opportunity to address these larger systemic issues.”