Despite this complex web of factors that influence the rate of gun violence, this report finds a clear link between high levels of gun violence and weak state gun laws. Across the key indicators of gun violence that we analyzed, the 10 states with the weakest gun laws collectively have an aggregate level of gun violence that is more than twice as high—104 percent higher, in fact—than the 10 states with the strongest gun laws.
The data analyzed in this report relate to the following 10 indicators of gun violence:
Overall firearm deaths in 2010
Overall firearm deaths from 2001 through 2010
Firearm homicides in 2010
Firearm suicides in 2010
Firearm homicides among women from 2001 through 2010
Firearm deaths among children ages 0 to 17, from 2001 through 2010
Law-enforcement agents feloniously killed with a firearm from 2002 through 2011
Aggravated assaults with a firearm in 2011
Crime-gun export rates in 2009
Percentage of crime guns with a short “time to crime” in 2009
For more on this story, visit: America Under the Gun | Center for American Progress.
