From Hearst Newspapers:
Connecticut has more restrictions on gun ownership than most states, so gun-rights advocates argue the Dec. 14 schoolhouse massacre there illustrates the futility of gun control.
But a new study by a San Francisco organization reaches the opposite conclusion: States with the most restrictive laws, including Connecticut and California, have lower rates of gun-related deaths, while states with few limits on firearms have the highest rates.
In 2009 and 2010, the most recent years for which information is available, California had the nation’s strongest gun controls and the ninth-lowest rate of gun deaths, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which favors firearms regulation.
Connecticut had the fourth-strongest gun laws and was sixth-lowest in gun deaths, while Hawaii ranked fifth in gun control and had the lowest death rate.
At the other end of the scale, the report found that Alaska, Louisiana and Montana–all graded F for gun control–had the highest rates of deaths caused by gunfire, more than double California’s rate. The law center graded all 50 states and gave an F, for weak regulation, to 24 of them.
In 2010, the report said, quoting the federal Centers for Disease Control, California had 7.88 gun deaths for each 100,000 residents, compared with rates of 3.31 in Hawaii and 20.28 in Alaska.
Read more: here.
So … California, where Harvey Milk and Mayor Mosconi were murdered in San Fran; Where gangs run rampant in East LA, has very restrictive laws on legal guns. And Illinois, where Chicago cannot control the murder rate despite a restrictive gun law. But Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia have a higher murder rate? I’d say the study done in SF was skewed and inaccurate.
The article does not footnote the CDC study it quotes. I looked and could not find the study on the CDC web page. I was beginning to think the article was sketchy. The article says “gun-related deaths.” Their are different kinds of gun-related deaths. The ones I think you are trying to ban are ‘robber shoots victim and kills him’ shootings. You could also count man shoots self (suicide). Suicides would account for more than 1/2 of all gun-related deaths. Since the gun ban in CA poisonings have jumped. That would also make sense for Alaska. The alcoholism rates and suicide rates are high in Alaska. There is also the accidental shootings, self-defense shootings and police-involved shootings. By clumping all these shootings together you get a distorted view of the shooting stats. That is the problem when you get info from a source with an agenda. The NRA is just as bad. I would still like to find the study for review.
’94 assault weapons ban
California had the nation’s strongest gun controls. Unlawful since 1934 (The National Firearms Act) for civilians to own machine guns without special permission from the U.S. Treasury Department. This is how it worked out in North Hollywood district of Los Angeles on February 28, 1997:
www .youtube.com/watch?v=Oqfrr26yTSY