Louisiana Is A Leader!

From the Violence Policy Center:

States with higher gun ownership rates and weak gun laws have the highest rates of gun death according to a new analysis by the Violence Policy Center (VPC) of just-released 2006 national data (the most recent available) from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The analysis reveals that the five states with the highest per capita gun death rates were Louisiana, Alabama, Alaska, Mississippi, and Nevada. Each of these states had a per capita gun death rate far exceeding the national per capita gun death rate of 10.32 per 100,000 for 2006. Each state has lax gun laws and higher gun ownership rates. By contrast, states with strong gun laws and low rates of gun ownership had far lower rates of firearm-related death. Ranking last in the nation for gun death was Hawaii, followed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New York. (See chart below for top and bottom five states.

State Firearm Death Rates, Ranked by Rate, 2006

Rank State Rate

1 Louisiana 19.58
2 Alabama 16.99
3 (tie) Alaska 16.38
3 (tie) Mississippi 16.38
5 Nevada 16.25
6 Arizona 15.93
7 Wyoming 15.60
8 Tennessee 15.52
9 Arkansas 15.16
10 New Mexico 14.57
11 South Carolina 14.23
12 West Virginia 13.99
13 Oklahoma 13.47
14 Missouri 13.14
15 North Carolina 12.77
16 Montana 12.67
17 Kentucky 12.63
18 Idaho 12.30
19 Georgia 12.25
20 Maryland 12.10
21 Indiana 11.77
22 Florida 11.54
23 Michigan 11.45
24 Pennsylvania 11.05
25 Kansas 10.85
26 Virginia 10.68
27 Colorado 10.43
28 Oregon 10.40
29 Texas 10.35
30 South Dakota 9.77
31 Ohio 9.72
32 California 9.28
33 Delaware 9.26
34 Vermont 8.70
35 Utah 8.68
36 Washington 8.56
37 Illinois 8.11
38 (tie) Maine 7.99
38 (tie) Nebraska 7.99
40 Wisconsin 7.61
41 North Dakota 7.22
42 Iowa 6.49
43 Minnesota 6.38
44 New Hampshire 6.25
45 New Jersey 5.68
46 New York 5.20
47 Connecticut 4.95
48 Rhode Island 4.43
49 Massachusetts 3.28
50 Hawaii 2.58
. National Average 10.32

*Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Control and Prevention.

Just look at that! No. 1 in per capita gun deaths! I'm a tad, just a tad embarrassed by this, but many of my fellow citizens here in Louisiana seem to take this information in stride.

Who knew that weak gun laws correlated with the number of deaths by gunshot?

But remember: As the bumper sticker says, "Guns don't kill people. People do." Tell that to the loved ones of those who are dead from gunshots.

Go read Steve Kanga's refutation of the fallacious statement. Sounds good to me. I like the final words:

A wit once described this irrelevancy thus: "Fingers don't kill people, bullets do."

Let's raise a glass to that, my fellow citizens.