Photo: AFP
California homicides are up over 30% from 2020. Sacramento County alone saw 100 homicides in that year.
Gun sales reflect that with a significant increase in sales last year. The 2,202 homicides last year were 523 more than in 2019, while the rate increased by a similar margin - from 4.2 to 5.5 homicides per 100,000 people. According to ABC10, California's 2019 homicide rate was the lowest since 1966, and violent and property crime rates in 2019 generally were among the lowest since the 1960s, four experts from the University of California, Berkeley's California Policy Lab said in a related review focusing on cities with more than 100,000 people.
Nearly three-quarters of 2020 homicides involved a firearm, up from 69% a year earlier, while domestic violence-related calls for assistance involving a firearm rose 42%.