The state House voted Friday night to override Gov. Phil Bredesen's veto of the latest bill that would allow holders of gun-carry permits to take their weapons inside any restaurant selling alcohol - although individual restaurant owners could still ban guns on their property, and permit holders can't drink while carrying. The vote, which followed an earlier override by the state Senate, allows the bill to become law.
The survey released last week by the Virginia-based Violence Policy Center ranks Tennessee in seventh place nationally for gun-related deaths, at a rate of 15.03 per 100,000 people. That's above a national average of about 10 gun deaths per 100,000, according to the survey.
Tennessee's household gun ownership rate is about 46 percent, the VPC estimates.
Louisiana topped the list, with a death rate of 19.87 per 100,000 and a household gun ownership rate of 45.6 percent. Hawaii came in last, with a death rate of 2.82 per 100,000 and a household gun ownership rate of 9.7 percent.
The VPC, which endorses banning handguns, relied on statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causes of death in 2007, the most recent year available. The group says the numbers prove more guns mean more danger to the average person - and that relaxing restrictions on guns in public places just adds to the danger.
I don't know what could be more transparent. In the States where you've got the most guns you've got the most gun deaths. The article points out that instead of recognizing this, the State of Tennessee is actually moving in the other direction with that override vote of the governor's veto.
What's your opinion? If guns in the hands of law-abiding gun owners make us safer, why do the states with more guns have the worst stats?
Please leave a comment.
Ironically, this gun control law was directly responsible for allowing a stalker to kill unopposed the husband of his obsession.
ReplyDeleteBecause they are worthless, deceptive stats of course.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is very transparent when someone comes up with a stat that correlates anything’s total numbers to its use/abuse. Of course the VPC does not show Hawaii’s ranking in DGUs in their report (if there are less guns, I’d suppose they’d be used for good less often too). Show me something that says overall deaths or overall violence is higher, and then try and blame it on gun availability. This here is as transparent as correlating a state’s alligator population to alligator attacks.
ReplyDeleteTS, That's a good point about the DGUs in Hawaii. Naturally they'd go down with the overall fewer guns, but I don't worry about that because most of them are bogus anyway. The truly necessary DGU is a rare animal.
ReplyDelete