The state of Alaska leads the nation in per capita gun deaths, a new analysis by the Violence Policy Center shows.
The study released Monday indicates Alaska has a household gun ownership rate of about 60 percent and a gun death rate of about 20.64 per 100,000 people, nearly double the national rate.
The study analyzed 2008 national data that was released earlier this month from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
The Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. that advocates reducing firearms violence, presented findings on the numbers behind gun deaths since 2003, its website states.
The group claims the total number of Americans killed by gunfire rose to 31,593 in 2008 from 31,224 in 2007.
The five states with the highest per capita gun death rates in 2008 were Alaska, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Wyoming, the study found. Each had a per capita gun death rate in 2008 that exceeded the national average of 10.38 per 100,000 people, a press release stated. Mississippi’s rate was second-highest at 19.32 deaths per 100,000 people.
The gun death rate statistics “look at the gun death rate overall,” Marty Langley, a policy analyst with Violence Policy Center, said in an interview Wednesday. “That includes homicides, suicides and unintentional shootings.”
There were 142 gun-related deaths statewide in 2008, according to the CDC data. Of those, 116 were suicides, 18 were homicides and eight were either unintentional, of undetermined intent or some combination of the two.
Of the 18 homicides, two were law-enforcement related, according to statistics from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Neither of those two instances occurred in Juneau. The last time a Juneau Police Department officer was involved in a shooting was October of 2007.
The number of firearms-related deaths in Alaska in 2008 is drastically low compared to other states with larger populations that ranked lower on the Violence Policy Center list. For instance, New York, which has a population of 19 million, had 963 firearm-related deaths per 100,000 people, giving it a crude gun death rate of 4.95. It ranked fourth-lowest on the list, tied with New Jersey.
A unique state
Langley acknowledged Alaskans have different reasons for owning guns “than say someone in Alabama,” due to bears and use by subsistence hunters.
Still, he said, “The reason for owning a gun really is not a factor. It’s the fact that the availability of guns is what drives the gun death numbers to be so high. The numbers kind of speak for themselves.”
Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand said in a statement about the study, “The equation is simple. More guns lead to more gun death, but limiting exposure to firearms saves lives.”
That is something Juneau Gun Club Board of Directors President Jay Davis says he takes issue with.
“I don’t agree with that,” he said, noting he’s a longtime National Rifle Association member. “I grew up with guns, I’m from the Midwest. You just were trained and know how to use them and knew they were dangerous.”
He said that’s why he appreciates local programs that encourage hunter education and firearms safety.
“This state is so huge, and the living conditions vary so greatly, that that’s got to be considered,” he said. “We’re a little bit different than other states.”
Many ways to read statistics
In 2007, 120 people died from firearm-related deaths in Alaska, according to the CDC; in 2006, 111.
Statistics from the National Shooting Sports Foundation show things in a different light. They said in 2009 accidental fatalities from firearms are at an all-time low, declining 42 percent in a two decades-long span. There were 1,440 accidental deaths in 1987 compared to 830 in 2007. The group also said firearms are involved in fewer than 1 percent of all accidental fatalities in the country.
Firearms ranked 10th on the list of Alaska’s top causes of injury deaths in 2005, according to the Alaska Trauma Registry and the Department of Health & Social Services. The top three causes of death were poison, drownings and motor vehicle accidents.
There may be fewer firearm-related deaths per year in Alaska compared to other states, but Langley emphasized the rate of gun deaths in Alaska has been consistently high. The past two years (2006 and 2007 data), Alaska placed in the No. 3 slot on the Violence Policy Center list. In 2008 (2005 data), Alaska took second place.
“That’s something that’s been fairly consistent,” he said.
Lax laws?
The Violence Policy Center attributes the high number of deaths in the top five states to “lax gun laws and high gun ownership rates,” the statement read. “By contrast, states with strong gun laws and low rates of gun ownership had far lower rates of firearm-related death.”
Violence Policy Center defines “lax” gun laws as those that add little or nothing to federal restrictions and have permissive laws governing the open or concealed carrying of firearms in public. States with “strong” gun laws were defined as those that add significant state regulation in addition to federal law, such as restricting access to particularly hazardous types of firearms (for example, assault weapons), setting minimum safety standards for firearms and/or requiring a permit to purchase a firearm and restrictive laws governing the open and concealed carrying of firearms in public.
Alaska state law does not require prospective purchasers of a firearm to undergo a background check prior to a private firearm transfer (i.e. a transfer by someone not a firearm dealers) or otherwise regulate private sales; does not license and regulate firearms dealers; does not prohibit the transfer or possession of assault-weapons; does not provide for the local regulation of firearms; and does not require any permit or license, which includes a background check, for the carrying of concealed firearms, according to the Legal Community Against Violence, a San Francisco-based advocacy group for ending gun violence. It is one of two states that allow concealed carrying without any permit or license.
At the bottom of the list for the lowest gun-death rates was Hawaii, followed by Massachusetts, Rhode Island and a tie between New York and New Jersey.
• Contact reporter Emily Russo Miller at 523-2263 or at emily.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (28)
Add commentCompare the suicides in those
Compare the suicides in those other states. THAT'S our problem.
Well...
This is the perfect scenario for anyone who wants to take away your rights one by one! Hey, lots of suicides so we can have stronger gun control. Then when people start driving off the road, hey, lots of suicides by car, let's lower speed limits and have a .02 legal limit instead of .08. Then when people start jumping over their neighbors fences impaling themselves they can make laws regarding fencing materials and height restrictions.
We could flip this argument. Maybe if we allowed people to ride their motorcycles off road in Juneau more people would have an outlet doing something they enjoy and therefore be happier and not kill themselves. Oh wait, that argument doesn't fit the liberal agenda.
even better
And of those 26 gun related deaths only 18 were homicides and two of those were cops shooting the bad guys. Sounds like Alaskans make some of the best gun owners
Guns make suicide easy
If you're depressed and drunk,and you have a loaded gun in the drawer, you can end it all with one quick action. Doesn't require a lot of planning or thought. Other forms of suicide usually take more work...or courage. So yes, availability of guns has an impact on suicide rates.
But restricting guns probably isn't the most effective answer. How about focusing on the reasons people want to off themselves.
I'd be curious to see a comparison with the MS, AL, and LA stats. Are their numbers driven as largely by suicide? Or by bubbas saying "Hold my beer and watch this!"
Or it could be just a lack of
Or it could be just a lack of education. A week ago I was at a friends house and watched their 8 yr old stick his toy gun in his mouth and repeatedly pull the trigger. The parents responded to my freaking out as "Whats the big deal? He's just playing. Besides its only a toy."
Education is the Key
As with any tool, if you don't know how to use it properly you can hurt yourself. The other thing to remember is that restrictions/waiting periods/background checks on anything, only prevent law-abiding citizens from participating - criminals don't care - criminals don't fill out paperwork.
They're baiting us.
The so-called Violence Policy Center is an anti-gun group that changed it's name. The reason Public Radio and now the print media picked up this story is that most media employees come from a nongun if not an anti-gun background. After all, journalism majors tend to lean far to the left just as engineering, agriculture and science majors tend to be more conservative. A balanced media would now come out with a story focused on findings of the National Rifle Association.
It's curious that Japan, where private gun ownership is illegal (Japanese Olympics shooters have to train in other countries) has a much higher rate of suicide than any rate cited in this article.
What is missing in this article is the overwhelming positive impact of gun ownership. Rates of crime in cities where guns are illegal or almost illegal such as NYC, Washington, DC, (despite the US Supreme Court ruling) and Chicago have far higher rates of violent crime than do places where gun ownership is common. Guns stop crime, and the impact of that crime-stopping outweighs the very small amount of actual gun violence. Remember, when seconds count the police are only minutes away. Also, if a homeowner shoots a burglar that is counted as gun violence by this left-wing Violence Policy Center, and if two drug dealers shoot one another that counts as two incidents by this organization. That said, any negligent discharge is one too many.
George Soros and his National Public Broadcasting can continue to harp about gun ownership in the United States but gun ownership is stronger today than at any time since 1968. We need to be vigilant however, and we need to continue to send money to the National Rifle Association.
They missed the point for Alaska
We have real problems that lead to deaths. Poverty and alcoholism lead to despair which lead to depression, suicide and violence. All of these are our problems. We should deal with them but they would exist with or without guns.
It matters to me that we lead the nation in suicides. However, you are equally dead regardless of if you shoot yourself or jump off a bridge.
A problem with gun laws is they penalize innocent people, much like prohibition penalized innocent drinkers. Prohibition didn't work out so well. I think most people agree that alcohol can be dangerous and so can guns. Yet, most Alaskans, myself included, own a gun and drink sometimes with no real impact to ourselves or anybody else.
It is probably best not to drink and shoot at the same time.
Alaskan's have better aim!
Alaskan's have better aim!
This statistic seems a bit
This statistic seems a bit misleading since so many of the deaths are suicides, which aren't as "scary". We have the occasional gang related shooting in Anchorage, some stupid accidents and a few domestic violence killings, but nothing like the carnage seen in the lower 48. Witness the judges, school kids, politicians, abortion doctors and thousands of other innocents gunned down every year. America's obsession with firearms may be harmful to your health.
More people die every day
More people die every day from donuts than guns. Ban them instead if you truly want to save the world.
Guns...
Guns don't kill people, stupid people kill people.
Guns don't cause suicides, the people commiting suicide cause suicides.
When people use guns to kill people, sometimes those people deserve to die.
When people use guns to kill people, sometimes it is just Darwin taking care of business.
The same liberals that want to take guns away want shorter sentences for violent offenders. Are these liberals trying to get us all killed?
It's not all roses in AK.
Alaska ranked 25th from the highest for murder in the US in 2008 according to the site below. AK consistently ranks mid range. DC ranked highest followed by Louisiana. Our rating isn't bad by comparison but clearly we shouldn't speak of crime as something that exists Down South while live in comparative safety. Also, the United States is one of the more violent countries in the developed world so it doesn't mean great things that Alaska sits in the middle of American murder stats.
One thing I noted from the murder stats is that crime doesn't seem to be a pattern with regard to gun laws. Louisiana has almost gun laws and a high murder rate but DC also has a high murder rate and they are not a gun friendly place.
I noticed Hawaii has a really low crime rate. I don't know if it's the beaches or the Maui Wowy.
It would do Alaska no good to ban guns.
crime stats: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s0304.pdf
Full disclosure. I own a gun and I eat donuts. How dangerous is that?
The NRA
I used to belong to the NRA. I guess I still do because they don't kick you out for not donating. The NRA used to be a great organization. I took hunter safety from an NRA sponsored program when I was a kid. They still have Hunter Safety and I would send my daughter to it but she doesn't like guns. Each to his/her own.
I can't support other aspects of the NRA any longer because they have become a political action committee for the republican party. They have too many side agendas and spend way too much time trying to convince the world that Obama wants to ban guns.
Obama does not want to ban guns.
hiker...
You said the United States is one of the more violent countries in the developed world. Are you comparing us with England with the IRA and suicide bombers from the Middle East, against Russia with their secret service that likes to knock off political opponents, against China with events such as the Tiananmen Square.
Maybe you were comparing us to France and Greece?
Are you comparing us with countries of simular size and population or are you comparing us with Denmark?
Yea, people die and will continue to die with or without guns. It sucks, but it's life. Overall in the world we live in though, we're doing pretty darn good! Guns aren't the problem, stupid people are.
Wren.
I am using this info
http://www.data360.org/graph_group.aspx?Graph_Group_Id=441
That puts the US below Russia and higher than Britain, even with the IRA. Russia isn't really a developed nation. These data aren't separated by whether they were gun deaths or not and I don't think they should be.
We mostly agree that stupid people kill people. I would contend that desperate people kill people rather than stupid people. High crime rates in the Third World reflect that. The US has it's share of desperate people. It's unfortunate.
We can pretend that all is well in Alaska and the US and that in every way the US is better off than other developed countries if that allows you to sleep better. In some ways the US leads the world but in other aspects we can learn from others.
Still, I haven't come up with national donut death stats but I would guess they exceed murder in every country in the world.
Response to Hiker
It's absolutely not true that the NRA sides with the GOP. For instance, when it was time to introduce the legislation that became our current concealed carry law the NRA selected Rep. Eric Croft (a life-long Democrat of course) to be the prime sponsor and carry the bill on the floor. The bill was certain to pass so it was helpful to any Alaska politician to be so honored (and some Republican elected officials were jealous). The NRA endorses many Democrats throughout the US but it's also true that more Democrats than Republicans support gun control. If Eric Croft had won the primary over Knowles in 2006, I am sure that the NRA would have supported Croft in the general election but they might have had to equally support Palin because as mayor she had fired her chief of police because he supported gun control (and she gave that as the reason for the firing).
Every organization has to make political calls, and often the choices are difficult but my belief is that the NRA does as well as many and better than most. I am certain that if not for the NRA we would have lost most of our gun rights over the past few decades, and Americans would today be much poorer for it.
From Oct. 27 Washington Times - lots of fun
Gun ownership is on the rise in some surprising places. As much as President Obama would have us believe that only small-town yokels “cling to guns or religion,” a Gallup poll released Wednesday suggests many of the firearms that have been flying off the shelves in the past two years were purchased by Democrats and women. The Second Amendment has truly gone mainstream.
Overall, just under half of Americans said they have a gun at home, which is 6 percent more than had them in 2010. Not surprisingly, the highest ownership percentages are found in the South and the Midwest, and Republicans are the group most likely to be packing heat - up 3 percent. By comparison, Gallup found the number of Democrats willing to come out and admit to having a sidearm jumped 8 points from 32 percent to 40 percent. Since Mr. Obama’s inauguration, the ranks of gun-toting women swelled by 10 points to 43 percent.
This change has significant impact on policy. Nearly three out of four respondents opposed handgun bans - an all-time high. There are now more Democrats with guns than there are liberals who want to take them away. A half-century ago, the gun grabbers held sway over public opinion. Today, even misleading terms like “assault weapon” aren’t enough to scare up majority support for gun control.
The 2004 expiration of the Clinton-era ban on some semiautomatic rifles did not result in an increase in mayhem or murder. Nor did anything bad happen in Chicago or Washington after the Supreme Court finally interpreted the constitutional directive that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed” to mean that people can actually keep arms.
On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee voted 19-11 to force state governments to give meaning to the right to “bear” arms. Rep. Cliff Stearns, Florida Republican, drafted legislation to provide the same nationwide reciprocity for concealed carry permits as currently exists for driver’s licenses. Though the bill has little chance of eluding Mr. Obama’s veto pen, the 2012 elections are not far away.
Violent crime has been on the decline as the number of people carrying guns has soared, so it’s obvious that the anti-Second Amendment crowd has been lying to us all these years. Crime cannot be wished away by enacting laws that only restrict what the law-abiding can do. As this truth sinks in, more gun grabbers will be converted into gun owners.
Dems & Guns
gdogs, the conclusion I would draw from your (unreferenced) statistics is that more gun owners are shifting from being republicans to democrats.
OK, kind of referenced
Washington Times...the FoxNews of newspapers.
Absolutely right!
How can anyone argue with them? If there are fewer guns then there will obviously be fewer gun deaths. No funny logic there at all.
Oh, wait! It wouldn't likely change the number of deaths at all, just how they came about. And so it becomes obvious to anyone with an inkling of intelligence that the VPC is not interested in stopping deaths, just keeping people from having guns. Why? Well, you know, guns are just evil and scarry and all that. Well, so is a chain saw, a roofing hammer and a hunting knife. Oh wait, they are all just tools and the VPC and their ilk can't grasp that there are absolutely legitimate reasons for people to have guns. Like for stopping violent criminals before they can kill, rape, maim or rob you.
There is NOTHING morally wrong with defending yourself and others from violent criminals!!! In fact, I find it morally wrong not to do so. I also find I am much more likely to be able to do so with a firearm. Duh!!!
I invite you...
...to commit suicide with a chain saw or roofing hammer.
Maybe...
Maybe guns wouldn't be such a problem if Obama's ATF agents weren't selling them through straw men and letting them float around the US and escape to Mexico where cartels use them to knock off border patrol agents.
Lets consider there was a political agenda here. Obama hates guns. Now if there are more deaths caused by AK47's and such, the ones the ATF allowed and assisted felons in buying, it would be far easier to outlaw guns and stand on a platform and look like you're doing something good.
Good job Obama! Way to give the cartels guns.
As for home protection, think about this. If you were desperate, broke, cold, into drugs, unemployed and your wife just dumped you, would you break into someone's home. If so, would you choose mine or someone elses? My best guess that after you passed by my place with the axe sitting right there in the woodshed, tools on the porch, driving by a few times you heard the chainsaw blasting and you know I've got an arsenal in my house, you wouldn't touch mine. And if you did, I assure you, you'd regret it.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Come on heroin addict, come on over!
Different guns have different
Different guns have different purposes. Hunting rifles are used to kill animals and put meat on the table (or, for certain idiots, trophies on the wall). I don't believe gun control laws usually target these useful guns. Assault rifles and handguns, however, have one purpose: to kill people. People should not have them. Period. If you're really concerned about home invasion (and you shouldn't be, even if you are perpetually insecure like many gun owners are) rest assured, a hunting rifle can still be used to kill a person.
Remember, every illegally acquired gun was legally manufactured. Australia has a very successful gun control program--look into it.
Shotgun
That's what I'd use for home invasions. But before that, I'd lock my door.
Gun nuts...and they accuse environmentalists of practicing a religion.
New Study; Run Away
This just in, The same idiots in DC who spent our money on this study discovered that more boating accidents occur per capita in Alaska than in states that do not border the ocean. More logging accidents per capita in SE Alaska than Los Angeles CA: All Loggers and Fishermen are urged to move to Oklahoma, before DC creates more regulations based on their Supper Committee brilliance.
twisted statistics
How many of these "gun deaths" were in self defense or committed by police in the line of duty?
This is purely hogwash! Just
This is purely hogwash! Just more nonsense from the anti-gun lobby. Sure, hunting accidents will happen, but I'd suspect that the majority of gun related deaths in this great state are from home invasions gone awry.