Democrat Blue States Have 46 Percent More Murders Than Republican Red States
original article written by Net Advisor™
WASHINGTON, D.C. There has been much debate about gun-related deaths in the USA. Generally speaking the Political Left tends to be anti-Second Amendment (anti-gun). Political Moderates and the Political Right tends to be in support of the Constitutionally protected Second Amendment.
Major U.S. Supreme Court Cases Upholding the Second Amendment
[1] Background
The Left claims that if we just have fewer guns, remove certain types of guns or have no guns, then we will somehow have a safer society. That concept hasn’t worked in Mexico where over 70,000 people have been killed since a total gun ban [Report, Point 11]. This idea also hasn’t worked in Great Britain since the government implemented a total gun ban after a 1996 mass shooting. Since the gun ban, Great Britain has seen total gun crime increase by 65 percent [Report, Point 4]. Criminals know that law-abiding citizens are likely unarmed and thus easy targets. The left ignores the fact that criminals don’t obey the law, and that is why they are called criminals.
Let’s pretend another law passes to restrict or otherwise limit the rights of a general law-abiding society. The criminals won’t say, ‘awe, gee, those politicians passed a law and we have to turn in all those guns we stole or smuggled in with our drugs. Wow, those anti-gun groups are so smart. Crime as we know it, is finally over.’
That is the thinking of liberal ideology. Never mind the fact that “under (EXISTING U.S.) federal law…prohibits any person convicted of a felony from purchasing or possessing any type of firearm.”
So, passing new laws restricting lawful citizens won’t stop crime; enforcing existing laws do help curb crime.
[2] Blue State Premise
Each U.S. state tends to follow a political majority, and we were curious if there was a relationship to crime (specifically homicide/murder) and how state’s voted in the last General (Presidential) Election.
We examined the assumption that if anti-gun Blue States (states that voted in majority for political Democrats), must then have a lower homicide rate than Red States (states that voted in majority for political Republicans).
[3] About Crime Data
To settle this debate about the relationship of firearms and murder rates, we pulled the latest data from the FBI‘s Uniform Crime Report (UCR).
For whatever reason, Florida was not included in the FBI’s 2014 Uniform Crime Report. So we checked with the State of Florida and found the state’s 2014 UCR. Florida’s statewide murder by firearm covers 1971-2014. We then added Florida’s official 2014 UCR data to the FBI’s 2014 national UCR report (chart below).
The FBI’s UCR defines murder and nonnegligent manslaughter as “the willful (nonnegligent) killing of one human being by another.”
After complying the data, we then looked at which states have higher murder rates. Not surprising, states with high populations tend to have higher murder rates.
We then examined all states in the last General (Presidential) Election (2012). We looked at the voting population of each state and whether a state voted in the majority for Democrats (Blue States), or voted in the majority for Republican (Red States). We found states that voted in Democrats (anti-gun) had significantly greater murder rates than states who voted in Republican (Red States).
[4] Summary of Findings:
- Blue States (D) had 7,678 murders in 2014, of that 5,454 murders committed using firearms.
- Red States (R) had 5,233 murders in 2014, of that 3,636 murders committed using firearms.
Thus, our study found that:
Blue States (D) showed a 46.72% HIGHER MURDER RATE than Red States (R).
2014 Uniform Crime Report: See chart in PDF or click graphic below to enlarge:
[5] Who Seems to be Committing Violent Crime?
The FBI states that the U.S. has “some 33,000 violent street gangs, and prison gangs with about 1.4 million members are criminally active.”
“According to the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment report, gangs are responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in most jurisdictions, and up to 90 percent in others.”
— FBI.gov (PDF) (data retrieved as of Nov. 2, 2015)
Next we looked at the Political Left’s push to ban certain types of guns, specifically the AR-15, which many in the media incorrectly call an “Assault Rifle.”
[6] Do “Assault Weapons” (AR-15s) Really Cause More Murders?
First, guns themselves don’t commit murders, it’s the user. Certain handguns can hold as many as 100 rounds of ammunition just like the AR-15. The cosmetics of the civilian AR-15 may LOOK more aggressive, but like a handgun functionally, the civilian AR-15 fires one rate per pull of the trigger.
We reviewed the 2014 Uniform Crime Report Table and looked at what types of known firearms were associated with the most murders. In 2014,
- Handguns were used in 5,851 murders.
- Shotguns were used in 262 murders.
- Rifles (all types combined) were used in 248 murders.
Thus the findings show all types of rifles including the AR-15, were used in just 2.8 percent of all murders in 2014.
Since Florida’s UCR categorizes firearms other than handguns as “Other Firearms,” we can only cite specific data that applies to the other 49 U.S. states in this finding:
- 62.42 percent chance to be killed by an attacker’s hands or feet than killed by a rifle.
- 84.17 percent chance to be killed with knife/ cutting instrument than killed by a rifle.
- 84.60 percent chance to be killed by other weapons (not guns or knives) than killed by a rifle.
Based on the data and using the Left’s rational, we should be banning hands, feet and cutting instruments than banning rifles.
[7] Review
We found that Blue (Democratic) States had 46 percent more murders than Red (Republican) States. The Uniform Crime Report data suggests that states who generally have strong anti-gun views do not reflect in lower murder rates. We can also conclude the premise that more murders are committed by person(s) using “assault rifles” (AR-15s) is UNFOUNDED. We further concluded that one is more likely to be killed by an attacker’s hands/ feet (62%), by a cutting instrument (84%), or non-gun weapon (84%), than be killed by a rifle such as an AR-15 (2.8%).
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Credits: General Election graphic file image, please advise for credit. Data as credited (FBI, State of Florida, Uniform Crime Reports, 2014). FBI graphics by FBI. UCR chart and data analysis by NetAdvisor.org® Staff. Original article content, Copyright © 2015 NetAdvisor.org® All Rights Reserved.
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