Okay, so, there's a new study out that listed the most violent and least violent states in the US. The study by the Institute for Economics and Peace assessed
factors such as number of homicides and violent crimes, the
incarceration rate, the number of police, and the availability of small
arms. The study also concluded the following:
"The 2012 United States Peace Index (USPI) has found that the U.S. is more peaceful now than at any other time over the last twenty years."
Okay, that's great news! According to its authors, the study "is the
only statistical analysis of crime, and the cost of crime, in all 50
states," including the 61 most populous metropolitan areas, and concluded the following:
- Maine is the most peaceful state for the 11th consecutive year; Louisiana is the least peaceful state.
- Wyoming has improved the most while Arizona records the biggest fall.
- The Cambridge metro area is the most peaceful, while Detroit is the least.
- Further improvements in peacefulness would generate hundreds of billions in extra economic activity.
Please leave a comment
Yes, fascinating, it seems that 4 of my Baldwin Top Ten gun friendly states made it to the top 5 peaceful states as well.
ReplyDeleteAre suicides counted in their "gun deaths"? If so, I don't think you can draw any kind of connections to crime activity.
ReplyDeleteUSPI is not counting suicides. This “groobiecat” site took USPI and imposed “gun deaths” on top of it with their little coffin graphic. What USPI did was define guns as being bad and made that part of the index.
DeleteMikeb, with the exception of Hawaii and somewhat Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, none of those states have the gun control that you want. The laws in eight of those states are nearly identical. Utah even allows concealed carry on college campuses. Vermont requires no permit to carry. All of the others have shall-issue systems. The country as a whole is the most peaceful that it has been in twenty years, despite (in your view) the wave of stand-your-ground and shall-issue laws.
ReplyDeleteWhat do we conclude here? Gun control is irrelevant to gun violence.
Do you get that? We've told you time and again, but here's more evidence. Gun control is no predictor of peace in a society.. So why don't you give up this silly effort to take away our rights, and let's work together on the real causes of violence and the real needs in our country?
"and let's work together on the real causes of violence and the real needs in our country?"
ReplyDeleteBecause it is far easier for him to bleat away on his blog from afar.
The violence doesn't follow the gun control, I agree. Maybe it's education level that it aligns with.
ReplyDeleteSo are you giving up on gun control?
DeleteLook at the map. Are you suggesting that the educational levels and qualities of Utah and Vermont are the same? How about Arkansas and Oregon? I don't have an easy answer to why things are as they are, since it's literally all over the map.
Finally, something we can agree on. Violence and Gun Control aren't related.
DeleteNow that you've accepted that, why do we need Gun Control?
Clearly it's not safety, because as we see, violence and Gun Control aren't related.
Education level and economic opportunity/achievement will correlate significantly with violence. (Technically speaking there will be a significant negative correlation.)
DeleteYou will also find a significant negative correlation to violence where families are healthy and citizens have a strong commitment to their community.
I find it interesting that 8 of the 10 most peaceful states are shall issue concealed carry states with Vermont actually being a "constitutional concealed carry" state.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but look at those most violent states. You've got a few of your best gun-rights paradises.
DeleteUm, Utah, Vermont, New Hampshire? Those are gun rights paradises. When are you going to change your tune? You admitted that the violence doesn't follow the gun control. Those are your words. So what does gun control accomplish? Are you now going to admit that it's about taking away the rights of good citizens?
DeleteDo it! Do it! Do it!
Sure, some of the most violent states are gun-rights paradises. That is also the point. Violence is everywhere. Gun control does not affect violence.
Delete"Wyoming has improved the most ..."
ReplyDeleteAnd this is incredibly interesting since Wyoming recently became a "constitutional concealed carry" state. I can't help but wonder how long before Wyoming climbs into the number three spot next to Vermont.
I'm sure the report is based on 2009/10 data so Wyoming will have to wait a couple of years.
DeleteThe problem that I have with this report is that they included “availability of small arms” as a contributing factor to the peace index. Note they also said this:
ReplyDeleteUSPI results are correlated against a large secondary dataset of economic, educational, health, demographic, and social capital factor, in order to determine the environments which are most closely associated with peace in the U.S.
This secondary dataset is where “availability of small arms” belongs. Instead of asking the question “do small arms contribute to violence”, they assumed [guns = less peace] as a variable definition contributing to the index. What this means is that by removing the small arm indicator (and putting it in the secondary dataset where it belongs), all the states with high gun availability will score a little better, and the low gun availability states will score a little worse in the USPI.