Gunshots rang out as St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones was discussing gun violence prevention. She did not flinch

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“My son and I go to sleep to the lullaby of gunshots within the distance each evening,” Jones stated, responding to a query on whether or not she felt protected. “It is part of my life now and that should not be.”

Earlier than the information convention, Jones and Kansas Metropolis Mayor Quinton Lucas had been taking part in a roundtable on how gun violence is affecting their cities.

“The sound of gunshots is an everyday prevalence in too many areas of my metropolis as properly; one thing I grew to know from youth. As we speak’s pictures reminded us of the truth so lots of our sisters, brothers, and infants face every day and the necessity for change,” Lucas wrote in a tweet.

Nationwide gun violence charges had been 30% larger throughout a 13-month pandemic interval in comparison with the identical interval the yr earlier than, a study published last week within the journal Scientific Reviews confirmed.

“We discovered a robust affiliation between the Covid-19 pandemic timeframe and a rise in gun violence within the U.S. in comparison with the pre-pandemic interval,” wrote the authors from Penn State School of Medication.

The researchers checked out each day police studies which corresponded to gun-related accidents and deaths from February 1, 2019, to March 31, 2021. These studies got here from all 50 states and from Washington, DC, and had been obtained via the Gun Violence Archive, an unbiased, not-for-profit group.

And Missouri was one of many 28 states the research recognized as having a considerably larger threat of gun violence in the course of the pandemic.

Lucas was on a two-day tour as a part of an effort by each officers “to advertise regionalism amongst leaders within the state of Missouri and share greatest practices for public security, equitable improvement, and extra,” in line with a news release from the St. Louis Mayor’s Workplace.

The mayors on Friday joined survivors of gun violence within the St. Louis neighborhood of Dutchtown, which implements neighborhood violence interruption applications, and toured the neighborhood to look at these efforts, the information launch stated.

“Advocates and survivors emphasised the necessity to handle root causes of crime and deal with gun violence like the general public well being disaster it’s,” the assertion stated. “Their level was emphasised additional within the press convention afterwards, when neither mayor flinched as gunshots rang out within the distance.”

CNN’s Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.

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