The rise in the murder rate in 2020 was very real & should be examined. However, murder rates are also very volatile. Discerning a trend is impossible at this point. There were *many* factors that could have made 2020 an outlier. Also, beware being misled by % increase/decrease.
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/1440762413544984579
% increase/decrease can be misleading for many reasons. The murder rate in the 70s/80s was very high overall, so the graph will show small fluctuations relative to a very high baseline. Murder rate in the last decade was relatively low This makes 2020 look worse than the 70's/80s 
Another reason % increase/decrease is misleading in year-to-year comparisons is that murder, tho too common in the U.S., is a statistically rare event. Numerically small changes in statistically rare events can lead to enormous % changes that are not meaningful in the long term
In the US, our fluctuations will often appear more extreme than in other Western democracies b/c we're flooded with guns. Guns mean you can kill multiple people at once, not just in traditional mass shootings. So one summer of extreme gun violence lead to a huge % change
So anyone who mentions the U.S. murder rate should always mention it in tandem with guns. That's the real issue here, both in terms of the wild-looking statistics, as well as the general problem of murder in the U.S.
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