NYT's Mara Gay: Experts say rising crime is due to 'trauma,' 'grief' 'upheaval' our country has faced

New York Times editorial board member Mara Gay appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" to assess the increase in crime that's occurred across the country. 

"I think there’s a couple of things going on here. The United States has a gun problem... We have too many guns on our streets so we need federal action to get them off the streets because individual states and cities, like New York, cannot stop the flow of guns from coming into New York City, for example, without federal action," Gay began. "Just rational action to prevent bad actors from getting their hands on guns. That’s the first thing."

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She then pointed to "people" who study "violence and crime" will say that it's "too soon to know and understand" why the crime spike is taking place. 

"But those who have worked on this issue for a very long time know- what they will tell you is that this is not surprising given the level of disruption, trauma, grief, joblessness, homelessness, and just general upheaval that the United States has gone through, particularly communities of color and people living in poverty across the United States," the MSNBC contributor said. 

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Gay continued, "So we do, I believe, need to make sure that police have the right resources to do the job well. That funding should come with accountability, it should come with reform and it should also come, I believe- and I don’t think that this is that different from what you’re seeing from many, many people are saying- it should come with some discussion of funding for other things that can help reduce violence and that can include cure violence programs, violence interrupter programs, but also after school programs, athletic associations, jobs." 

She added, "People need help in their lives to stay away from crime and it’s not only police that should be the tool."