Six facts about guns, violence, and gun control

[PowerStroke2003]

One of my friends posted this article on his Facebook yesterday...

I can't help but notice that the "facts" seem to be a little skewed

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...d-gun-control/

[ChrisUSMC]

Ya that map dosen't make alot os sense to me unless I'm reading it wrong. It says that we have 3X the gun violence of New York and California? I think they're facts are off a bit.

[camper]

These numbers cannot be true, they're saying NJ and NY has LESS gun crime than PA???? Even if you count Philly, I dont buy it.

camper

[Metz]

These numbers cannot be true, they're saying NJ and NY has LESS gun crime than PA???? Even if you count Philly, I dont buy it.

I've been checking the numbers in the past couple of nights. NYC has around 600 hmicides per year. The whole state of PA - 700-something. Divide it by two, if you want to exclude Philly. About third of homicides in bucks county are gun-related and I have reasons to believe the rest of the state has similar proportion.

Bottom line - it's liberal bullshit, that is totally made up.

[Metz]

One of my friends posted this article on his Facebook yesterday...

May I suggest more careful screening of your friends?

[rmagill]

I've been checking the numbers in the past couple of nights. NYC has around 600 hmicides per year. The whole state of PA - 700-something. Divide it by two, if you want to exclude Philly. About third of homicides in bucks county are gun-related and I have reasons to believe the rest of the state has similar proportion.

Bottom line - it's liberal bullshit, that is totally made up.

Well, how about we have some fun with them. Lets publish a study comparing the firearm related murder rates in Smalltown, PA with all of the homicide rates for CA, NJ, and NY (state) combined .

I am seriously getting tired of the liberal nonsense of using shoddy research to "prove" their point then scream foul at the top of their lounges when they are proven wrong. Guns don't cause crime any more than spoons make people fat.

[BenP]

The map shows gun deaths not homicides. That means it include suicides. If they were intelectually honest, they would of pointed it out.

[scruff]

If it's true that gun ownership is going down, I'll bet there's a lot fewer people that own hunting guns, but a lot more people buying guns for self-defense.

[Metz]

Well, how about we have some fun with them. Lets publish a study comparing the firearm related murder rates in Smalltown, PA with all of the homicide rates for CA, NJ, and NY (state) combined .

When convenient to them, they start using "other factors" all of a sudden, like population density, while denying them in other cases, when it doesn't match their agenda.

[American1776]

Instead of just looking at gun related deaths, it's more relevant to look at murders per capita by state. By focusing on murders, you're getting a better big picture look at what may be going on in each state. http://m.deathpenaltyinfo.org/murder...ally-and-state

Here, you can see that nj's murder rate is higher than many pro-gun states. It's not that different from pa, and remember, pa has philly. But look at maryland. No concealed carry, but much higher murder rate than pa. Look at Colorado, very low murder rate, quite a lot of legal guns there. Look at North and South Dakota, Oregon, Montana, Vermont. All these states have much 'freer' and more lax gun laws, and have murder rates MUCH LOWER than NJ, NY, Maryland, and Illinois. Heck, Illinois has 5 times the murder rate of many of these pro-gun states.

Still, this data isn't the whole story, but it gives a better perspective of what's going on in terms of overall crime and murder. Just focusing on gun murders is deceptive; nj might have lower rates of gun murders than a place like colorado or north dakota or vermont, but these pro-gun states have overall murder rates half or 3-4 times lower than NJ's overall murder rate! They are safer states to live in, but with lax gun laws.

Gun murders can be high in a state that has an overal low murder rate, while a state with lower gun murders could have much higher rates of murder.