Thoughts and Prayers Break out in Louisville Again, and in Dadeville, Alabama

@redredred True. A huge percentage of gun violence victims are criminals.

@redredred Rural red state thugs and rednecks must be killing each other, since the rate of gun deaths is highest in red states with the highest gun ownership. Illinois, for example, is only 27th out of the 50 states, even though there is gang-related violence in its largest city, Chicago.

@windinhishair if you remove the democrat run cities of NYC, Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit and LA from the count, the US falls to the bottom 10% of countries in terms of homicides.

@redredred Rural red states have the highest rates of gun deaths. You are twice as likely to die of a gunshot in Wyoming than Illinois. Stop trying to misuse statistics that show higher total numbers because the US has a higher population than Monaco or Luxembourg. Use the proper metric--per capita gun deaths.

@windinhishair gun deaths by state

@ElwoodBlues Okay but the raw numbers matter too. Sparsely populated states like Wyoming might have a higher rate but tell me you would feel safer if your car broke down on the south side of Chicago at 1:00 AM versus Torrington Wy.

@redredred The incidence rate is what matters, because that is a direct measurement of the likelihood of an event occurring. And as the map shows, red states are the most dangerous for gun deaths.

If I was black and in Torrington WY, I would not be happy breaking down at 100 AM. Hell, a black honor student in Kansas City isn't even safe knocking on a door in broad daylight.

@windinhishair over 90% of the black homicide victims are killed by other blacks so, I assert Torrington Wy would be safer than South side Chicago irrespective of your color.

@redredred You can let your racist brain twist itself into knots trying to justify killings of minorities, but you cannot change the facts that you are more likely to be shot in Wyoming, or Alabama, or Mississippi, or more than a dozen red states than you are in Illinois, because more citizens of those states have guns and are willing to use them whether justified or not.

@windinhishair Again with the baseless racism charge. I defy you to find actual racism in anything I’ve written. Quoting actual FBI crime stats isn’t racist.

Red states own more guns do gun homicide rates would reasonably be higher. But dead is dead whether. Here’s a challenge. Compare the gun homicide rates among cities. Take the fifty cities with the highest raw numbers of gun homicides and compare the ones run by democrats with the ones run by republicans.

What? You mean they’re almost all run by democrats?

Does that tell you anything?

@redredred There you go. Red states have more guns, and hence, more gun deaths. Very good! So you have a better chance of dying in a red state with high gun ownership than a blue one with lower gun ownership. That's why states like California, New York, and Illinois have lower gun death rates than states like Mississippi, Alabama, and Wyoming.

Always glad to help educate you, even if it takes four or five tries for you to understand.

@redredred I looked into that city - mayor - party correlation a while back. Yep, the majority of ten highest per capita homicide cities did indeed have democratic mayors.

However, the surprising thing, the thing the right wing always forgets to mention, is that the majority of ten lowest per capita homicide cities also have democratic mayors.

That's right, when you look at both ends of the spectrum you find that most cities have democratic mayors. The correlation between mayoral party and homicide rate is weak.

However, when you look at state governor's party vs per capita homicides, the correlation is strong. And when you stop and think about it, state gov't has a lot more power over gun laws than city gov't. Can Tampa's or Orlando's democratic mayors override DeSantis' new carry w/out permit rules? I don't think so.