Hawai'i has the lowest gun death rate in the country, according to figures released this week by the Washington-based Violence Policy Center.What could be the reason for this?Hawai'i's gun death rate in 2007 was 2.82 per 100,000 residents, center officials said. The next lowest gun death rate, 3.51, was in Rhode Island, followed by 3.63 in Massachusetts.
Louisiana had the nation's highest gun death rate, at 19.87, followed by Mississippi at 18.32 and Alabama at 17.62, according to the center.
Why is it so difficult for the gun rights folks to put two and two together? Hawaii is another place where gun control works. I suppose Joe Huffman can stop asking that silly question now.The study also listed household gun ownership by percentage, with 9.7 percent of the homes in Hawai'i having one or more guns in the household — the lowest percentage in the country.
States such as Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama had the nation's highest gun ownership rates, at between 46 and 57 percent, and also had the highest gun death rates, the study found.
What's your opinion? Does gun control work on the island of Hawaii?
Please leave a comment.
Interesting... so the only places where gun control "works" are both Pacific islands with a majority Japanese or Pacific Islander population and all other demographic backgrounds making up less than 10%.
ReplyDeleteWhat could be the reason for this?
ReplyDeleteI dunno. Longstanding poverty and unemployment? Lower overall education level? Higher rate of drug usage?
Interesting. Anonymous gets his 'facts' wrong concerning Hawaii's demographics.
ReplyDeleteHawaii is 27% causcasian, 38% asian, 9% hispanic, 9% pacific islander, 3% black, and the rest are self-described multi-racial.
I think Anonymous was attempting to make the erroneous point that Hawaii is largely one homogenous race and, thus, doesn't have the racial tensions present elsewhere.
Of course, this point is bogus beyond absurdity as anyone would know if they spent any time in Hawaii.
--JadeGold
That's not the only thing Anonymous got wrong. The link I provided to the other place was to a story about New York City.
ReplyDeleteHow about the fact that Hawaii is an island away from the mainland, in particular the SE United States. That makes it harder to smuggle firearms in.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with DC and NYC is that they are inside the United States and do not have the ability to control what commerce comes in.
RuffRidr's comment about "Longstanding poverty and unemployment? Lower overall education level? Higher rate of drug usage?" would point to a higher rate of crime. Case in point, the District of Columbia, which has all those problems.
In fact, DC's gun crime rate is due to "a higher rate of drug usage".
And a much easier access to firearms.
Laci
It's not ALL about access, but that's one of the main factors, and the most concrete one about which we can do something.
ReplyDeleteMikeb302000,
ReplyDeleteYou reading comprehension problem and inability to determine truth from falsity are showing again.
You quote "lowest gun death rate". I don't care about "gun death rates". I care about safety--low violent crime and murder rates.
According to the UCR from the FBI for 2007 HI has a violent crime of 272.8/100K and a murder rate of 1.7/100K. ID, because it's close on the table and it's where my home is has rates of 239.4/100K and 3.3/100K. Okay, the murder rate is higher but the violent crime rate is lower.
Let's check another place where gun laws are even more relaxed. VT, 124.3/100K and 1.9/100K. Still lower violent crime rate and slightly higher murder rate that HI.
How about the cowboy country of MT? Violent crime rate of 287.5/100K and murder rate of 1.5/100K. Higher violent crime and lower murder rate.
How about ME? Isn't that one of the states that "supplies guns to the Northeast"? Violent crime rate of 118.0/100K and a murder rate of 1.6/100K. Both lower than HI.
How about another place with laws even more strict than HI, D.C. Violent crime rate of 1,414.3/100K and a murder rate of 30.8/100K.
And another. The metropolitan areas of New York State. Violent crime rate of 431.5/100K and a murder rate of 4.4/100K.
Hmmmm... It looks to me like the gun laws don't have that much correlation to violent crime and murder. It's random enough you would have to crunch the actual numbers to make sure but it looks like gun laws aren't the determining factor. Just like the CDC report I linked to in my Just One Question post which concluded there was no evidence supporting the conclusion strict gun laws make people safer.
Silly question indeed. It's the first question bigots like you need to answer.
Don't bother me again until you know how to determine truth from falsity and you can answer Just One Question.
Joe, I'm afraid I slighted you terribly when I called Linoge and John Lott the hardest working gun bloggers. Thanks for sharing those stats with us.
ReplyDelete