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Monday, July 23, 2012

Intriguing differences in Firearm Crime between US States

I have been looking at the Guardian report on Firearm Crime <http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jan/10/gun-crime-us-state>. As an old solution focussed family therapist, I note there is an intriguing difference between the various US states.
Looking at the extremes we can group into 2:

Group 1
Vermont (0.32), New Hampshire (0.38), Hawaii (0.54), North Dakota (0.61), Iowa (0.69), Idaho (0.77), Utah (0.78), Maine (0.84), Wyoming (0.91), Oregon (0.93), South Dakota (0.98), Minnesota (1.0); all have 2010 rates of firearm murder of 1 per 100,000 or less.

Group 2
Arkansas (3.2), California (3.37), Arizona (3.47), Mississippi (4.05), Michigan (4.16), Delaware (4.26), South Carolina (4.5), Maryland (5.11), Missouri (5.34), Louisiana (7.75), District of Columbia (16); all have 2010 rates of firearm murder at least three times higher – ie ranging from 3.2 to 16 per 100,000.

Less than 30% of murders in Vermont, New Hampshire and Hawaii are gun related, yet 80% of murders in Louisiana, and 75% in DC are gun-related.

The difference between Group 1 and Group 2 does not appear to be geographic in origin. Is it perhaps poitical or socio-economic? What are the group 1 states doing well to enable them to keep their rates of gun related deaths low?

The Guardian does not report suicides by firearm. Can anyone match the states comparing gun-related murder rates with gun-related suicide rates per 100,000?

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