More Guns Result in More Homicides

More Guns Result in More Homicides

US states with higher gun ownership have more gun homicides. The average gun homicide rate for all states is 4.1 per 100,000 people per year. This dwarfs the gun homicide rate of 28 other high-income countries of 0.16. US states with higher rates of gun ownership, called "High Gun States" in this study, have a gun homicide rate of 6 gun homicides per 100,000 people, or 50% higher than the US average. States with low levels of gun ownership, called "Low Gun States" have 2.2 gun homicides per 100,000 people.

High Gun States have a 2.7 times higher gun homicide rate than Low Gun States.
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Mid Gun States are consistent with the US average of 4 gun homicides per 100,000 people. 

 

High gun states with high gun ownership: AK, GA,ID, KY, LA, MO, MT, OK, SC, WV

 

Low gun states with low gun-ownership: CT, HI, MA, NJ, NY

 

Mid gun states: all other states

 

Source: Violent death rates in the US compared to those in other high-income countries, 2015/2019 Erin Grinshteyn, David Hemenway