In a recent interview with the BBC, President Obama lamented his inability to effectively tackle guns during his presidency. The President was quoted in "The Hill" saying, “If you ask me where has been the one area that I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied, it is the fact that the United States is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient, common-sense gun safety laws.” As I think about this and the unnerving and seemingly escalating gun violence in the nation, I wondered what the laws looked like from state-to-state.
According to research collected by Deseret in 2013 for a report ranking the ten states with the most strict gun laws, IL ranked #2 overall. This was just before the laws changed allowing conceal-carry permits. As I was doing some brief research of my own, I wanted to know which states had the most gun crimes/violence in the United States. I was surprised with what I learned.
Alaska ranked #1 followed by Louisiana and Mississippi. Tennessee ranked #10. Other states in the top ten included Montana, New Mexico, Alabama, Wyoming, Oklahoma, & Arkansas. No where to be found in the top ten of the CDC's research from 2013 were Michigan, Illinois, California, Texas, or New York; though one may argue that gun violence in large cities like Chicago, LA, Houston and New York City; or mid-sized cities like Washington DC, Detroit, Baltimore and Cleveland make up the bulk of gun deaths in those states. I'm not sure. However, I wondered if there was a direct correlation between poverty and gun crime in subordination to the gun laws of any one particular state.
In 2013 Pennsylvania ranked #1 with having the strictest gun laws in that Deseret poll. California ranked #10. Other states included Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Connecticut & New York. Go figure. The states with the strictest gun laws had less gun crime than the top ten states that had the least restrictive gun laws including a common rule across those particular states: Stand Your Ground.
So in 2013, the states that had the strictest gun laws, including Illinois, had less gun crimes than the states that had less restrictive gun laws. This shouldn't be rocket science, but as a 2nd amendment supporter it bolsters my opinion that common sense laws safeguarding lives should trump my ability for legal easy access to guns.
We need to get illegal firearms off the street and tackle socio-economic issues that tend to exacerbate gun violence in our major, urban areas. In states like Alabama, Mississippi and Alaska, addressing social justice issues, poverty, education, and employment are critical. I was even surprised that of the gun crimes in the top ten at least four or five were located in the infamous Bible Belt. Maybe we need to open up the Word more rather than opening up a hail of .45 calibre bullets.
Overall, addressing poverty in direct correlation with common sense gun legislation should theoretically reduce the amount of real gun violence in states — perceived or not. But here's the rub: right now, gun crimes are down 49% nationally as a whole since the early '90's (Pew, 2013).
Internet References
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/06/13/24-7-wall-st-states-most-gun-violence/71003050/
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