The historic violence wave of 2020 that sent the national murder rate up some 30 percent was in no way limited to large cities. Smaller cities and towns saw a hike nearly as large, according to data provided by local police departments to the FBI. While rural or suburban living still offers much greater safety than an urban one, that comfort considerably diminished last year, the recently released data indicates. In 2019, towns with populations under 50,000 had a murder rate of less than 2.9 per 100,000. That same rate was more than 3.7 in 2020—almost as high as that of 2019 New York City, which was 3.8. One now has to look at towns of less than 2,000 people to get a homicide rate, just barely, under 3 per 100,000. The year prior, those same small towns recorded a rate of less than 1.6. In this analysis, The Epoch …