Right, Gungeoneers?

That is, Gungeoneers who haven't been exposed and tombstoned.

The study says states with weak gun violence prevention laws and higher rates of gun ownership have the highest gun death rates in the nation.

with a few more bucks from the NRA for more propaganda, they can be first!

Also, I wonder how much of this is due to the fact that they are among the worst in education.

This study was produced by a gun-control group that uses the fact that suicides make up most of the gun deaths to confuse people into believing that there is a link between gun ownership and violent crime. Gun deaths not only include suicides, but things like police shootings and defensive shootings that are not considered a crime. In other words, reducing the number of times that the police shoot a criminal would be one way of reducing gun deaths. A funny thing happens if you substitute violent crime rates for gun deaths.

Violent Crime Ranking - Violent Crime Rate/100,000 - Gun-Ownership Rate

1. South Carolina - 766 - 42.3%
2. Tennessee - 760 - 43.9%
3. Nevada - 742 - 33.8%
4. Florida - 712 - 24.5%
5. Louisiana - 698 - 44.1%

50. Maine - 116 - 40.5%
49. North Dakota - 128 - 50.7%
48. Vermont - 137 - 42%
47. New Hampshire - 139 - 30%
46. South Dakota - 171 - 56.6%

You can go a step further to get a more accurate idea about gun ownership and violent crime; here are the 10 states with the highest gun ownership rates and where they rank in violent crimes.

Gun ownership rate - Violent crime ranking

1. Wyoming - 59.7% - 43
2. Alaska - 57.8% - 6
3. Montana - 57.7% - 41
4. South Dakota - 56.6% - 46
5. West Virginia - 55.4% - 39
6. Mississippi - 55.3% - 31
6. Idaho - 55.3% - 42
6. Arkansas - 55.3% - 11
9. Alabama - 51.7% - 23
10. North Dakota - 50.7% - 49

States with lowest gun ownership rate and where they rank by violent crime:

Gun ownership rate - Violent crime ranking

40. Delaware - 25.5% - 7
41. Florida - 24.5% - 4
42. California - 21.3% - 14
42. Maryland - 21.3% - 8
44. Illinois - 20.2% - 13
45. New York - 18% - 22
46. Connecticut - 16.7% - 37
47. Rhode Island - 12.8% - 44
48. Massachusetts - 12.6% - 20
49. New Jersey - 12.3% - 26
50. Hawaii - 6.7% - 36

It can easily be seen that there is no correlation at all between gun ownership and violent crime. Let's play another game to show how easily statistics can be manipulated. See what happens when you change the parameters to violent crime rate and percentage of the population that is African American:

Violent crime rate - percentage of African-Americans - ranking

1. South Carolina - 766 - 28.48% - 5
2. Tennessee - 760 - 16.78% - 10
3. Nevada - 742 - 8.10% - 23
4. Florida - 712 - 15.91% - 11
5. Louisiana - 698 - 31.98% - 2

50. Maine - 116 - 1.03% - 47
49. North Dakota - 128 - 1.08% - 46
48. Vermont - 137 - 0.87% - 49
47. New Hampshire - 139 - 1.22% - 44
46. South Dakota - 171 - 1.14% - 45

Now you are probably gnashing your teeth ready to call me a racist, but my point is that statistics are easy to manipulate to get whatever result you want. Notice how by limiting comparisons to just the top 5 and bottom 5, I have managed to not include Mississippi which has the #1 ranking in percentage of African-Americans but only ranks 31st in violent crime. This, of course, blows holes in what the statistics appear to show. Likewise, if you simply look at all of the various statistics regarding gun-ownership and violence in different states and foreign countries it is pretty easy to blow holes in the supposed study that is being reported here. It is nothing more than good propaganda.

I should probably add that these statistics come from the US Govt., not the NRA.