Gun violence higher in states with higher gun ownership and weaker gun laws

States with higher rates of gun ownership and with weaker gun laws have more deaths from gun violence.

Wouldn't you think?    It's just make sense.   And yet, we've had decades of conservative, gun-lovers trying to tell us otherwise.  

And people saying stupid stuff like:   "When guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns" -- to try to convince us that the good people should have more guns.

Now the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit research group studying the impact of gun violence on public health, has released a report that gives us some data.   As reported on Huffington Post by Amanda Gutterman:

"Alaska has the highest rate of gun fatalities in the country, according to data from 2013. The state saw 19.59 deaths per 100,000 people . . . .  Alaska also has the country's third-highest rate of gun ownership, with firearms in 60.6% percent of households.

"The study found a similar correlation between gun ownership and gun deaths in the rest of the country. Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Wyoming, the states that followed Alaska in terms of highest gun death rates, had some of the nation's largest percentages of households owning guns. . . . "

The study also found that those five states have "lax" gun restrictions, such as not banning assault weapons and allowing concealed carry permits.

"States with the lowest gun death rates -- the top three were Hawaii, Massachusetts and New York -- were found to have strong gun laws as well as low rates of gun ownership.  A separate 2013 analysis from the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence similarly found that these three states were among those with the strongest gun restrictions in place.

A number of previous studies have linked gun laws and gun ownership with deaths by gun violence, challenging the "more guns, less crime" hypothesis that suggests a higher rate of gun ownership makes communities safer. . . .

"Another recent report from researchers at Johns Hopkins and Stanford Universities found a positive link in all 50 states between right-to-carry laws and a rise in violent crimes. . . . 

Hawaii, the state that had the fewest gun deaths in 2013, has only 9.7 percent gun ownership and a gun death rate of 2.71 out of 100,000. . . .

Even that is still high compared to many other countries.   In the United Kingdom, few people own guns and the 2013 gun violence death rate was one-tenth of our best state -- at 0.23 deaths per 100,000.

What is this American craze for guns and more guns?   Even after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 -- which raised a national discussion about guns -- Americans have stockpiled more and more guns and further weakened some states' gun control laws.

Only in America.

Ralph