It's little surprise that many of these states—including Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Utah, and Virginia—are notorious for lax gun laws. What's more, the numbers aren't driven just by "bad guys with guns." Nationally, close to two-thirds of gun deaths are suicides, and the split is much higher in states such as Alaska, which reported more than twice as many gun suicides as traffic deaths in 2010. Utah (the "most depressed" state, whose suicide problem we cover in detail here), Nevada, Oregon, and Washington are also seeing more gun suicides than traffic fatalities. Idaho, Montana, and others are close behind. We'll leave you with this chart showing the most recent nationwide numbers available:
Then it's clear that the thing we should be working on is improving the quality of and access to healthcare, rather than trying to violate the rights of Americans.
ReplyDeleteProper gun control is not a violation of rights. I'm getting tired of your repeating that mendacious opinion of yours. You know it's not true, but you repeat it so often that you think it'll gain some credibility.
DeleteIt was Republicans who shut down the mental health system we had until the 1980's. And it's today's Republicans who refuse to pay to get a mental health system back on line, including refusing to fund a mental health evaluation, or mental health background checks for gun purchases. So don't promote something you know your side would never fund, or vote for.
DeleteAnonymous, as I've made it clear on this site repeatedly, I'm not a Republican. I also have stated many times that I support a single-payer healthcare system.
DeleteMikeb, I know nothing of the kind.
Did I say YOU were a Republican? NO!
DeleteJust explaining where the problem lies.
But thanks for lying about me again.
On to your next lie.
Yes you did. You called the Republicans "[his] side".
DeleteHis and your "side" are gun loons including the NRA. The gun loons and the NRA are against mental health evaluations and checks. Next lie.
DeleteThe gun loons and the NRA must be so proud.
ReplyDeleteWith more guns than ever out in the public, no ones gun rights are being violated.
Hi Mike, sorry I was out of the loop a lot this weekend, I was able to read my emails of responses, but military computers wont go to blogs so I was limited to my short time in my hotel room.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the article only deals in raw numbers, and deftly manages to mention California's presence on the map as a state with more gun deaths than auto deaths, even with its strict gun laws.
I did run across this cool interactive graphic showing the rate per 100k of gun deaths to auto deaths. While Alaska gets to rightfully keep its place in the more gun deaths compared to auto deaths when rates are used, the other states mentioned seem to fall well below.
I did notice a possible correlation in regards to states with strict gun laws, though is isn't without exceptions. But with the exception of Alaska, which I mentioned earlier, states that approach parity or where gun death rates exceed auto death rates seem to be states with strict gun laws.
States with higher gun death rates than auto death rates include,
Virgin Islands
Puerto Rico
District of Columbia
Alaska
States that are at what I consider parity, which for me is within 1 per 100k of each other are,
Maryland
Nevada
Michigan
http://www.datamasher.org/mash-ups/firearm-deaths-vs-vehicle-deaths#table-tab
Please let me know if I missed any, but it seems to disprove the article's assertions.
Raw numbers are the same as rates in this case because it's a state by state analysis. More is more.
DeleteAnd let's not forget that the average car owner uses his car a lot more than the average gun owner uses his gun.