GUN VIOLENCE

For this project, we look at gun violence across the United States from 2014 to 2017, broken down by state. Using gun incidence data from the Gun Violence Archive and state population statistics from the US Census Bureau, we were able to create different measures to compare gun violence across the United States. One measure used to create all three visualization is the impact total. The impact total is the sum of the number of people killed or injured in crimes that involved a gun. In the heat table visualization, the measure was used to look at the number of incidences across states based on the day of the week and the month of the year to see if these variables affect the number of incidences. In most states, these incidences occurred most frequently on Sundays throughout the year (Gun Violence Archive, 2018). For the map visualization and the bump chart, the impact total was used within another equation to find incidence rates in order to compare states by controlling for population differences. The incidence rate was calculated by multiplying the impact total by each respective state’s population and dividing by 100,000. Therefore, all data on the map and bump chart are measure per 100,000 residents. The incidence rate was used in the bump chart to distinguish and rank which ten states had the highest incidence rates in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017.

        It was surprising to find that the state I have been researching, Texas, was not among the top ten states with the highest incidence rates per year. Looking further at the data, I was even more surprised to find that Texas fluctuated between ranks 29, 30, and 31 between 2014 and 2017. In 2017, Texas’s incidence rate was only 9.66 per 100,000 residents as compared to number-one-ranked Louisiana’s 37.10 per 100,000 residents (Gun Violence Archive, 2018; US Census Bureau, 2021).

        Texas is well-known for being a “strong gun-rights state,” with over 35% of Texan adults owning guns in comparison to the 30% of adults nationally who do, which is why many would be shocked to see it ranking so low in number of incidences. In general, the gun laws in Texas focus less on restricting gun ownership and more on regulating the carrying of guns. Texas citizens are allowed to own most types of guns, including rifles, shotguns, and handguns, but there are some restrictions. Rifle and shotgun barrels have a minimum length they must be to be permissible under law and handguns cannot be legally purchased by anyone under 21. Additionally, in any situation, other than hunting or self-defense situations, it is illegal for anyone younger than 18 to possess a handgun. Plus, handguns are the only firearm in Texas that require a permit to carry (Tarrant & Méndez, 2019).

        These extra policies on handguns might help to explain why impact rates are lower in Texas than in 29 other states. During class on March 8, Dr. Wooten discussed why gun buyback programs are often unsuccessful in reducing gun related incidences. One of the reasons is because many of the weapons that are turned in are rifles and shotguns which are use more frequently in mass terror as opposed to crimes that involve far less people. With small scale gun violence incidences, the type of gun used most often is a handgun. Texas having stricter laws on handguns and less strict laws on other firearms like rifles and shotguns could explain why their incidence rate is low compared to other states. There may be less violent crimes with guns involved occurring because it is more difficult to acquire the typical weapon used to commit such crimes.

        While it is interesting to compare rates within the United States, it is also interesting to see how the United States compares to other countries when it comes to gun violence. In a 2014 Vox article, Dylan Matthews writes about how gun control works in Canada and how it compares to the United States. The differences discussed in the article refer to six major categories: legal vs. illegal guns, licensing, registration, background checks, concealed carry, and gun safety requirements. In each of these specific categories as well as overall, Canada has much stricter gun laws than the United States. One category, and the way in which both countries address it, that I found to be particularly interesting was gun licensing. In Canada, if anyone wants to own or buy firearms or ammunition, they are required to have a license. To acquire a license, they must pass a multitude of safety tests and even if they do get a license, they cannot participate in concealed or open carry and their weapon must be kept at home. In contrast, citizens do not need a license to own any kind of gun in the United States. Some states require licenses and some even require safety training and testing to get the licenses, but it is on a state-by-state basis (Matthews, 2014).

        This helps to explain why some states in the U.S. have much higher incidence rates than others. Personally, I find this discouraging. I think that if the United States had stricter laws, set at a federal level, there would be less gun violence nationally. I do not, however, see that becoming a reality anytime soon. I do believe that state’s rights are important, but when there is so much gun violence occurring in the United States, it is hard to say that there should not be some nationwide guidelines to help reduce it. I think that benchmarking other countries such as Canada and using some of the same practices they do could help to reduce gun violence in the United States and make the country a safer place.

References

Gun Violence Archive (2018). Gun Violence Data. Gun Violence Archive. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports

Matthews, D. (2014, October 24). Here's how gun control works in Canada. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2014/10/24/7047547/canada-gun-law-us-comparison.

Tarrant, D., & Méndez, M. (2019, October 18). What are the gun laws in Texas, and what's CHANGING SEPT. 1? https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2019/08/09/what-are-the-gun-laws-in-texas-and-what-s-changing-sept-1/.

US Census Bureau. (2021, March 9). State Population Totals: 2010-2019. The United States Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/data/datasets/time-series/demo/popest/2010s-state-total.html.