320 Years of History
Gold Member
One thing that amazes me about the gun debate is what I discovered when I looked at which states had the worst records of gun deaths and which have least restrictive laws regarding access to guns.
The ten states having the least restrictive gun laws are:
The states having the most restrictive gun access laws are:
After doing that, I wondered whether there might be a correlation -- causal or indicative -- between rates of gun ownership and gun deaths.
States with the highest per capita rates of gun ownership:
Also, I know that while there may be a black market for guns, not everyone has access to it or is going to; the black market for guns isn't nearly as easy to find as, say, the black market for sex or drugs. Indeed, were I to want to buy some weed, cocaine, or illegal weapons, I honestly haven't the first idea whom I could ask and reasonably expect they'd have either or know whom to ask in turn. I suspect more folks do know how/where to find weed, perhaps even cocaine. I wonder whether that's even close to so for illegal guns -- not counting guns offered at trade shows/gun shows, which I am considering to be legally sold, at least for now.
I also realize that death by gunshot for ~33K out of ~318M+ residents in the U.S. isn't a high overall rate of gun deaths. The thing is that with gun deaths, the issue for me isn't whether a lot of people (in ratio) die by gunshot, but rather that people were killed.
About the only area where I've heard anything that makes sense from gun rights folks has to do with suicides and guns. It makes sense to me that guns being an easy and quick means by which one can kill oneself, folks use them for that. What's not clear to me is whether lacking an easy and quick method, the very same folks would yet try (succeed) to kill themselves. After all, not everyone has barbiturates around to OD on and just go to sleep and not wake up. (I'm not one to call if you want to kill yourself. Call me and odds are I say nothing or I'll discuss ways to ensure success more so than I will dissuade you from trying. To folks who want to commit suicide, I say have at it, just be sure not to fail because it's a PITA for the folks who care about you if you do, and nobody has time for that crap. Get it over with and let the rest of us go on with our lives.)
The ten states having the least restrictive gun laws are:
- Arizona (population 7M)
- Alaska (population .7M)
- Utah (population 3M)
- North Dakota (population .7M)
- Oklahoma (population 4M)
- Florida (population 20M)
- Wisconsin (population 8M)
- Texas (population 30M)
- Wyoming (population .6M)
- Mississippi (population 4M)
The states having the most restrictive gun access laws are:
- California (population 38.5M)
- Connecticut (population 3.5M)
- New York (population 20M)
- New Jersey (population 9M)
- Massachusetts (population 6.5M)
- Hawaii (population 1.5M)
- Delaware (population .9M)
- Rhode Island (population 1M)
- Illinois (population 12M)
- Maryland (population 6M)
After doing that, I wondered whether there might be a correlation -- causal or indicative -- between rates of gun ownership and gun deaths.
States with the highest per capita rates of gun ownership:
- Wyoming: 195.7 firearms per 1,000 people.
- District of Columbia: 66.4 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Arkansas: 41.6 firearms per 1,000 people.
- New Mexico: 40.5 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Virginia: 30.1 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Idaho: 24.2 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Alabama: 20 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Nevada: 19.5 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Alaska: 15.2 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Louisiana: 15.1 firearms per 1,000 people.
- Kentucky
- Oregon
- Arizona
- West Virginia
- Colorado
- Nevada
- Wyoming
- New Mexico
- Montana
- Alaska
- What the heck are the people in the states with the least restrictive gun ownership law states shooting at such that their rates of gun deaths outpace every state that is on the least restrictive gun law states list? Canadians, elk, moose, bears, snow, mountains, rich folks visiting Jackson Hole, Inuits, oil shale, magnolia trees...
Of course, the answer options are presented in jest, but WTH?!?...What explains why the rate of death by gunshot wounds outpaces in places that mostly don't have a lot of people in them to begin with the same rate in places having much higher population densities? What explains that?- Is there a whole lot of carelessness going on?
- Are there just a lot of really stupid people in those places?
- Are there just a lot of really scared people who will shoot at whatever moves in those places?
- Are there just a lot of folks with really poor aim/gun skills in those places?
- Are non humans included in the counts of gun deaths in those states? (me joking again)
- Are the bullets ricocheting off the sides of mountains and glaciers? (me joking again)
- Why is does it seem that in places having much lower population densities there is so much "reason" to shoot other people than there seems to be in places having higher population densities?
- Why is it that two of the three lowest population states, states that also have among the greatest available space in which folks can disperse themselves and not have to encounter other people whom they may shoot or want to harm them (Alaska and Wyoming), have both among the highest rates of gun ownership and the highest rates of gun deaths?
- Why is it that D.C. which has about the same population and nowhere near the same land area, has a lower gun death rate than Wyoming and Alaska? (Alaska has slightly more people than D.C.; Wyoming has slightly fewer.)
- If guns are so necessary for self-defense, what is going on in high gun death rate states, especially Alaska and Wyoming, that militates for so much self-defense and that results in such a high rate of human gun deaths? It can't be because the rate of threats is somewhat constant for were that so, higher population and/or higher gun ownership states would have to also have higher gun death rates.
- Why is it that states having the highest population densities and generally low wealth aren't the states that also have the highest rates of gun deaths?
- Why is it that the states (Alaska and Wyoming) that have the highest rates of gun deaths and gun ownership keep showing up when one looks to see which states fare the worst in relation to what happens when guns are used?
Also, I know that while there may be a black market for guns, not everyone has access to it or is going to; the black market for guns isn't nearly as easy to find as, say, the black market for sex or drugs. Indeed, were I to want to buy some weed, cocaine, or illegal weapons, I honestly haven't the first idea whom I could ask and reasonably expect they'd have either or know whom to ask in turn. I suspect more folks do know how/where to find weed, perhaps even cocaine. I wonder whether that's even close to so for illegal guns -- not counting guns offered at trade shows/gun shows, which I am considering to be legally sold, at least for now.
I also realize that death by gunshot for ~33K out of ~318M+ residents in the U.S. isn't a high overall rate of gun deaths. The thing is that with gun deaths, the issue for me isn't whether a lot of people (in ratio) die by gunshot, but rather that people were killed.
About the only area where I've heard anything that makes sense from gun rights folks has to do with suicides and guns. It makes sense to me that guns being an easy and quick means by which one can kill oneself, folks use them for that. What's not clear to me is whether lacking an easy and quick method, the very same folks would yet try (succeed) to kill themselves. After all, not everyone has barbiturates around to OD on and just go to sleep and not wake up. (I'm not one to call if you want to kill yourself. Call me and odds are I say nothing or I'll discuss ways to ensure success more so than I will dissuade you from trying. To folks who want to commit suicide, I say have at it, just be sure not to fail because it's a PITA for the folks who care about you if you do, and nobody has time for that crap. Get it over with and let the rest of us go on with our lives.)