With this in mind, let’s realize what the Center for American Progress has inadvertently accomplished with their latest report on gun homicides in the USA: the greatest predictor for gun violence in a state is the percentage of blacks living in the state.
The more blacks living in the state, the greater the number of firearm homicides.
In a majority of states, gun homicides disproportionately affect communities of color. For example, while Black Americans represent around 15 percent of the population in Michigan and New Jersey, they account for more than 74 percent of gun homicides victims in those states. In New Mexico, Hispanics make up close to 47 percent of the population but are victims of 60 percent of gun homicides. American Indians and Native Alaskans are also disproportionately affected: In Alaska, Native Alaskans make up 16 percent of the population and account for 27 percent of gun homicide victims, while in North Dakota, American Indians make up 5 percent of the population but are victims of more than 20 percent of gun homicides. Gun-related homicides are also prevalent in the context of intimate partner violence. The author’s analysis of the FBI’s Supplemental Homicide Reports shows that from 2007 through 2016, more than 5,250 women were murdered with a gun by an intimate partner.
Obviously, this conclusion was not something the researchers at the Center for American Progress hoped to uncover nor would they ever dare report what they’ve clearly discovered when it comes to gun violence and who/who is perpetrating it across the USA.
Iowa, Idaho, South Dakota, North Dakota, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Hawaii (three percent black) have the lowest gun homicide rates per 100,000 people… what do those states have in common? Not too many black residents.
Just a bunch of white people (outside the outlier of Hawaii), who don’t shoot one another with their firearms.
Poverty exists in these states, but gun violence is extremely rare.
States with highest gun homicide rates per 100,000 people? Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri (where almost all gun violence is committed by blacks), Alabama, Maryland, and South Carolina… what do those states have a lot of?
You guessed it: a large black population (Missouri has perhaps the most violent, with St. Louis and Kansas City among the most violent places in America, courtesy of the black population residing there).
Again, until we can be honest about who/whom is committing the bulk of gun violence in America (cough: blacks), we can’t have a true conversation about gun control in the USA.
