The Myth of Red State Gun Violence

The Myth of Red State Gun Violence



One statistic that the gun-control crowd loves to toss around is that gun violence is highest in deep red states and lowest in deep blue states. And statistically speaking, they're correct. Per the CDC, the states with the highest per capita rates for gun murders are Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama, and Missouri. The states with the lowest rates are Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey, and New York.


So what's going on here? Is this simply a systemic problem of violent, gun totin', insurrectionist inbreds barreling through the backwoods in their pickup trucks, yeehawing and looking for my-NAHR-uh-ties to shoot? Could the coastal elites, for once, have the facts on their side?

Well, no. Because once you dig a little deeper, and you see exactly which regions of those "red states" are experiencing the most gun violence, the picture becomes clearer. In Mississippi, for example, the most violent per capita of "red states," there were 844 gun deaths in 2023. But within Mississippi, the area with the most gun violence was Leflore County.

In Missouri, the area with the most gun violence was the city of St. Louis. In Louisiana, the area with the most gun violence is Caddo Parish, home of Shreveport, one of the most violent cities in the nation. In New Mexico, the area with the most gun violence is Otero County. And in Alabama, the area with the most gun violence is Dallas County.

What do these areas have in common? Other than Otero County, all these violent areas have a majority black population.

But if you bring up these demographics, rest assured: USAFacts has pegged you for the racist you are, and has pre-empted your silly statistics. Gun violence, you see, is driven by "complex factors" such as "community conditions like poverty and racial or ethnic inequities (emphasis mine)."

Got that? If it's just "red states" we're talking about, then of course we can expect higher levels of gun violence from all you moonshine guzzlin', trailer park hillbillies. But if you break it down by communities within those states, then it's not so simple. Then there are "complex factors" at play. Your unconscious bias is what's causing gangbangers and drug dealers on the other side of the state to shoot each other, not their own stupid decisions.

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