As an economist, I pay attention to trends.

Some are hard to see and some are obvious.

One trend that's impossible to miss is the uptick of gun violence in the US.

Between 2019 and 2020, firearm homicides went up by 34% and reached their highest level

in more than 25 years.

One especially visible form of gun violence is school shootings.

They're still rare events, but they're on the rise.

The 2020 to 2021 school year saw the greatest number of shootings with casualties since reliable

record keeping began.

2020 was a phenomenal year in terms of gun sales.

That's Phil Levine.

He's a professor of economics at Wellesley College and a lot of his research focuses on the causes

and consequences of gun violence.

We'll hear from him today about the link between school shootings and gun sales and the

tough bind it creates for gun control advocates.

Because school shootings don't happen in a vacuum.

Gun violence has so many more consequences than just the direct victims.

And that's Dan for economists, Maya Rosens later, who studies the effects of school shootings

on kids.

Later, she'll tell us about the indirect victims of gun violence and what these tragedies

are really costing us.

From the Freakonomics Radio Network, this is Freakonomics MD.

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