Wednesday, May 27, 2015

More Fun With Numbers - Gun Deaths Up in Georgia, 44 Other States

AJC

As deaths from gunshot wounds rose steadily in Georgia and most other states, the District of Columbia crafted a narrative-busting success story. Once one of the nation’s most violent jurisdictions, the District reduced firearms deaths by more than half, even as its strict gun-control laws came under attack in Congress and the courts.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of government statistics, insurance industry data and reports from state vital-records agencies found that Washington cut gun deaths by 58 percent over the past decade.

Besides D.C., only four states reported fewer gun deaths in 2013 than in 2003, the Journal-Constitution found: New York (down 17 percent), California (down 13 percent), Maryland (down 11 percent) and Illinois (down 3 percent). In New Mexico, the same number of people died from gunshot wounds in 2013 as in 2003.

Nationwide, gun deaths rose by 12 percent; in Georgia, the increase was 8 percent. Maine had the highest rate of increase: 93 percent. In all, nine states recorded increases in gun deaths of at least 25 percent. Those include Utah (up 47 percent) and Oklahoma (up 41 percent).

4 comments:

  1. MikeB: "if guns were removed..."

    If you cared about that question, you'd have to look at a stat other than "gun deaths".

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    Replies
    1. Your math wizardry cannot explain it all away, as much as you'd like it to.

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  2. Baffle them indeed. In this case, they seem to baffle by over generalizing. For example,

    "Nationwide, gun deaths rose by 12 percent; in Georgia, the increase was 8 percent. "

    Nationwide accidental deaths dropped 30 percent. Homicides dropped by 6 percent. Suicides rose by 30 percent.

    Georgia's homicides dropped by 5 percent, though both accidental deaths and suicides rose by 50 percent and 12 percent respectively. Its also surprising that they didn't talk more about Illinois, one of the states that showed an overall decrease. In my opinion, they have made much larger inroads in the area of gun rights than DC.
    Not only did the McDonald decision remove the ban on handgun possession in Chicago, but they went from not issuing carry permits at all, to a shall issue carry permit system which is now entering its first year.

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  3. Nationwide accidental deaths dropped 30 percent. Homicides dropped by 6 percent. Suicides rose by 30 percent.

    Somehow, these geniuses will come up with a way to blame suicides on Stand Your Ground laws ;-).

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