Seems like the data shows a pretty clear correlation between gun deaths, per capita, and gun ownership, per household. Seems like those are reasonable metrics, and their data sources (which they cite) are reasonable. From MotheJones, full article here.
Not that I disagree, but we should remember that causation isn’t proven by correlation.
This needs, at a minimum, an analysis that normalizes for other factors.
If you go to http://www.suicide.org and, under Suicide Statistics, look up “Suicide Rartes by States and Washington, DC,” you will see that, in general, the suicide rate per 100,000 persons is highest in the West. And Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana are in the top five states for suicide. This pattern correlates quite well with Mike’s graph of gun ownership/gun deaths. As most suicides in the U.S. are by gun, this is no surprise. No one has stats on proclivity for suicide by state, but it seems that, if a household has a gun, it becomes likelier that someone in that household will die by gun.
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