Violent crime in jurisdictions that recognize Right to Carry is lower than in areas that prevent it

[jpak]

More NRA Wayne LaPierre lies - yup

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/feb/16/national-rifle-association/wayne-lapierre-said-violent-crime-jurisdictions-re/

<snip>

We next turned to the FBI's crime statistics, looking particularly at the violent crime rate. This is a statistic that counts violent crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. We should note that the FBI warns people not to create ratings from these statistics, saying that rankings "provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region." We went ahead and created a state ranking anyway, knowing that it wouldn't necessarily establish a causal link between "right to carry" laws and a lower crime rate. At this point, we simply wanted to see if the statistics were consistent with what LaPierre said.

We found the the states without "right to carry" were spread out across the list, not bunched together at the top. The District of Columbia, which has strict gun control laws, ranked highest for violent crime. The other states ranked as follows: Delaware, No. 5; Maryland, No. 10; Illinois, No. 13; California, No. 17; Massachusetts, No. 18; New York, No. 24; New Jersey, No. 30; Hawaii, No. 36; Wisconsin, No. 39, and Rhode Island, No. 42.

We also couldn't help noticing that some states with laws that favor gun ownership placed at different points along the list. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence rates state gun laws, so we looked at the 14 states that had the weakest gun laws. Here, we also saw a wide variation in where the states ranked in terms of violent crime: Alaska, No. 6; Louisiana, No. 7; New Mexico, No. 8; Arkansas, No. 11; Oklahoma, No. 12; Missouri, No. 15; Arizona, No. 21; West Virginia, No. 32; Kentucky, No. 38; Montana, No. 41; Idaho, No. 44; Utah, No. 47; North Dakota, No. 48, and South Dakota, No. 49.

So using the 2009 data, we don't see any evidence that state gun laws correlate with violent crime rates one way or the other, at least not "across the board" as LaPierre suggested in his speech.

<more>

[mediator]

1. So they 'note' FBI cautions against making inferences then proceed to do exactly that.

No wonder most educated people see these anti-2nd Amendment freaks for what they are: dissembling liars.

[jpak]

4. The NRA made those same inferences - but that's OK if they do it - not

liars

yup

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jpak]

7. Can't have it both ways

nope

[hack89]

2. "We don't see any evidence that state gun laws correlate with violent crime rates "

Do you agree that more guns does not mean more crime?

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

3. Ergo, "more guns" does not mean more or less crime. So why tke the anti-choice side and be antigun?

With no causal relationship cited either way... does a true liberal desire more or less freedom?

[AtheistCrusader]

6. LaPierre is a partisan, and will spin data just like Helmke. News at 11.