With homicides peaking at 500 in November, Philadelphia has just reached — and is likely to exceed — its murder record, previously set in 1990.

Amid the development that the city had reached this record, Mayor Jim Kenney lamented the rise of gun violence and declared creating a safe community a priority for his administration.

“I never stop thinking about the victims and their families and the incredible loss these senseless deaths leave behind. And as we enter this holiday season, I can’t help [but] think of all the incredible potential that has been extinguished by the loss of life,” he said Wednesday.

Kenney touted a recent initiative in collaboration with law enforcement, called Operation Pinpoint Strategy, to curb crime and “take record numbers of guns off the streets.”

“Every one of these guns off the streets is one less that could be used to harm or kill Philadelphians,” he said. The startling surge in violence largely coincided with the COVID pandemic, which wrought economic and social distress across the country, resulting in higher unemployment.

In June, Philadelphia’s city council authorized a fiscal […]