I'll keep this simple. As most of us know, Kentucky has some of the most lax gun control in the United States. At the current time some of our lawmakers want to stricken gun control in every way possible.

 

So that brings up my question. Since in this state you can carry concealed in every city, you can carry openly, you can own "assault" rifles, etc. Why do states that have stricter gun control laws generally have more gun violence and are the same states targeted by crazy people wishing I'll will on large numbers of people?

 

Serious question, that I hope gets serious responses before it turns into a political debate.

Serious question, that I hope gets serious responses before it turns into a political debate.

 

Can't answer your query without it getting political. Impossible.

Serious question: what are the statistics of gun incidents in Kentucky, in total. So, not just mass shootings, but any incident that involves using a gun, either on purpose or by accident, where someone is wounded or dies.

Number of Deaths Due to Injury by Firearms per 100,000 Population | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

 

 

Just from eyeballing this, I would dispute your conclusions that gun violence is higher in states with more gun laws. I'm not going to do a state-by-state analysis, but it seems the states you expect to have lenient gun laws have higher gun deaths per capita than the other way around. And if you factor in population density for states that have large cities I'd be willing to bet that association would be even higher (there's less crime and violence in rural areas because there are fewer people near each other).

Serious question: what are the statistics of gun incidents in Kentucky, in total. So, not just mass shootings, but any incident that involves using a gun, either on purpose or by accident, where someone is wounded or dies.

 

I'll have to do some more research on that. If you want to include accidental shootings, I'm sure our number rises. However the point of the thread is gun violence.

I wonder how many of Kentucky's reported gun deaths are Murder, Accidental or Suicide. I would say that there are more Gun Deaths by Suicide in Kentucky than by Accident and Murder combined.

 

 

Edit: A study by UK from 2001-2012 showed approximately 400+ suicides by firearm per year over the last decade.

http://www.mc.uky.edu/kiprc/PDF/Suicide_Report_2013.pdf

 

A recent year (2010) showed that Kentucky had 116 murders by firearms for that year. Putting Kentucky almost exactly in the middle of Firearms Murder Rates at 2.7 per 100,000

Number of Deaths Due to Injury by Firearms per 100,000 Population | The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

 

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Just from eyeballing this, I would dispute your conclusions that gun violence is higher in states with more gun laws. I'm not going to do a state-by-state analysis, but it seems the states you expect to have lenient gun laws have higher gun deaths per capita than the other way around. And if you factor in population density for states that have large cities I'd be willing to bet that association would be even higher (there's less crime and violence in rural areas because there are fewer people near each other).

 

Again, I'm talking about gun violence, not accidental shootings or suicides. Maybe instead of stricter gun control as far as guns are concerned, maybe we should offer better training on how to handle them.

I wonder how many of Kentucky's reported gun deaths are Murder, Accidental or Suicide. I would say that there are more Gun Deaths by Suicide in Kentucky than by Accident and Murder combined.

 

Again, I'm talking about gun violence, not accidental shootings. Maybe instead of stricter gun control as far as guns are concerned, maybe we should offer better training on how to handle them.

 

 

This begs the question: Are suicides rates higher in states with lax gun laws? And if so why shouldn't that be factored into the gun violence equation?

 

And @JDEaston if you want us to talk about homicides only then we can but we should also be on the same page as to what the numbers look like. What are they?

This begs the question: Are suicides rates higher in states with lax gun laws? And if so why shouldn't that be factored into the gun violence equation?

 

And @JDEaston if you want us to talk about homicides only then we can but we should also be on the same page as to what the numbers look like. What are they?

 

Why should they? Plenty of ways to kill yourself without shooting yourself. This state is full of tall bridges that would give a suicidal person the same result. More work, maybe.

Why should they? Plenty of ways to kill yourself without shooting yourself. This state is full of tall bridges that would give a suicidal person the same result. More work, maybe.

 

If people are more likely to kill themselves if they have a gun available than if not then I would consider that important.

I'll keep this simple. As most of us know, Kentucky has some of the most lax gun control in the United States. At the current time some of our lawmakers want to stricken gun control in every way possible.

 

So that brings up my question. Since in this state you can carry concealed in every city, you can carry openly, you can own "assault" rifles, etc. Why do states that have stricter gun control laws generally have more gun violence and are the same states targeted by crazy people wishing I'll will on large numbers of people?

 

Serious question, that I hope gets serious responses before it turns into a political debate.

 

Short answer for Kentucky is that Kentucky is near the very low end of the Violent Crime Spectrum...Kentucky is Ranked 47th in Violent Crime per 100,000 at 198.8 per year.

 

By Comparison...

Ohio 32nd 275.5

Indiana 23rd 349.9

Tennessee 5th 579.7

Illinois 21st 372.5

 

Compared to our surrounding neighbors Kentucky is by far the safest place to be to avoid violent crime.

 

Kentucky Violent Crime Offenses

This may not be what you want but here is my take:

 

Common sense to me says _

 

The more guns the more gun killings and gun violence, however you define it, there will be

 

The more unprotected sex taking place the more babies being born.

 

The more cars there are the more traffic accidents there will be.

 

The more smoking you do the greater chance of dying of lung cancer.

 

The more gambling you do the more money you will lose.

 

Some of these are controlled some not. Results are still the same. You will not stop gun deaths by controlling it or giving people more guns. You will lessen them by controlling but not stop them. You will increase gun violence with more people having guns.

 

Just common sense to me.

If people are more likely to kill themselves if they have a gun available than if not then I would consider that important.

 

I had been looking for numbers on gun violence alone, but they are hard to find. @Jumper_Dad did a good job finding some good info.

 

The best I could find is a map that shows gun violence around the US, however it does not break it down state by state, it does appear to be current and updated often.

 

Here is the link:Gun Violence Archive

If people are more likely to kill themselves if they have a gun available than if not then I would consider that important.

 

I think suicide is about a lot more than the available ways to commit it. In this county just a few that I know of from this year are 1-jumped from bridge 2-via firearms 2-hanging and several by intentional overdose.

 

Is there a correlation that in areas with more guns that guns are used more often, I'd be shocked if it wasn't. But the absence of firearms I don't think is stopping those wanting to commit suicide from doing so.

I think suicide is about a lot more than the available ways to commit it. In this county just a few that I know of from this year are 1-jumped from bridge 2-via firearms 2-hanging and several by intentional overdose.

 

Is there a correlation that in areas with more guns that guns are used more often, I'd be shocked if it wasn't. But the absence of firearms I don't think is stopping those wanting to commit suicide from doing so.

 

I don't think it would stop it all together either. All I'm asking is that if the availability of guns is correlated with the rate of suicides why would we not also consider that a problem?