Following the Uvalde bloodbath, CNN took a look at individual states’ gun death rates, and one factor stood out: States with plenty of weapons are likely to have plenty of gun deaths.
Right here’s the speed of gun deaths per 100,000 residents within the states which might be most affected by gun violence, in accordance with CNN:
- Mississippi: 28.6
- Louisiana: 26.3
- Wyoming: 25.9
- Missouri: 23.9
- Alabama: 23.6
- Alaska: 23.5
And listed below are these states’ charges of gun possession, outlined by the share of adults who reside in a family with not less than one gun:
- Mississippi: 50%
- Louisiana: 48%
- Wyoming: 59%
- Missouri: 48%
- Alabama: 50%
- Alaska: 59%
In the meantime, listed below are the comparable numbers for the states least affected by gun violence:
- Hawaii: 3.4 deaths per 100,000 residents (8% reside in a family with a gun)
- Massachusetts: 3.7 (10%)
- New Jersey: 5 (8%)
- Rhode Island: 5.1 (11%)
- New York: 5.3 (14%)
These are stark numbers—and notably instructive is Hawaii’s instance. In spite of everything, it’s enacted stricter anti-gun measures than most states, and the Aloha State doesn’t have to fret practically as a lot about weapons streaming in from areas with lax gun legal guidelines. As a result of it’s an island, surrounded by water. Big water. Ocean water.
In line with Everytown for Gun Security, a gun violence prevention advocacy group, Hawaii has the second-strongest gun control laws in the union, after California (whose gun dying fee is lower than a 3rd of Mississippi’s).
So it’s vital to check apples and oranges—or pineapples and oranges, because it have been. Chicago is a giant metropolis, however for all intents and functions, it’s bordered by comparatively gun-friendly Wisconsin and Indiana. And as a lot as I’d like to place moats round all of the blue states to maintain weapons and Child Rock and seven-layer mayonnaise-based salads out, that’s simply not sensible.
So possibly as an alternative of a patchwork of gun legal guidelines, we might all observe Hawaii’s instance and choose those that basically work. However earlier than we do any of that, we’ll must enact far stricter Republican management.
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