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Murders in US very concentrated: 54% of US counties in 2014 had zero murders, 2% of counties have 51% of the murders

Posted by freedomforall 8 years, 2 months ago to Culture
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According to a 2013 PEW Research Center survey, the household gun ownership rate in rural areas was 2.11 times greater than in urban areas (“Why Own a Gun? Protection is Now Top Reason,” PEW Research Center, March 12, 2013). Suburban households are 28.6% more likely to own guns than urban households. Despite lower gun ownership, urban areas experience much higher murder rates. One should not put much weight on this purely “cross-sectional” evidence over one point in time and many factors determine murder rates, but it is still interesting to note that so much of the country has both very high gun ownership rates and zero murders.

This study shows how murders in the United States are heavily concentrated in very small areas. Few appreciate how much of the US has no murders each year. Murder isn’t a nationwide problem. It’s a problem in a very small set of urban areas, and any solution must reduce those murders.


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  • Posted by 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    If there is a high probability that a law abiding person will have a gun available for personal defense, that, alone, could deter any violent action regardless of the weapon being used.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    That is what I was hoping to hear when I posted this, Esceptio.
    I'd like to see an overlay map created of the murder rates and the voting by county in the 2016 election. If someone had the data it could probably be done in Excel.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    ;^)
    I'd like to see an overlay map of the murder rates and the voting by county in the 2016 election. Let's put the facts out there so some young (or older open) minds have the opportunity to see them and to question the propaganda.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 8 years, 2 months ago
    This study is interesting. It's unfortunate they mostly report murders per county. In the middle of the article it says the murder rate for US is 4.4 per 100k. Removing the 2% of counties where half of the murders occur results in murder rate of 3.06 per 100k for the other 98% of counties. It doesn't go down that much because most of the effect is that most people live in those 2% of counties. But it does go down some, which is interesting. If it were just proximity to policing, we might expect murder to be less common in big cities. I do believe rural people rely on guns to protection that urban people rely on police for. Police take minutes to arrive even in urban areas, so guns work better at deterring crime.

    Another effect not discussed in young unmarried men tend to commit most murder. Urban areas lend themselves more to unmarried people. So it's possible this is responsible for the difference in murder rate.

    I agree something is there, but this article confuses it by not adjusting for population. Those 2% of counties have most of the people, so they will tend to have more of every human activity. It would have been clearer if they provided more per-100k data.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Removing rats' teeth and claws just leads to a lot of rats dead from starvation. They breed so fast that the next generation, complete with teeth and claws, are driven to kill their helpless elders to make sure there's enough food and water for them, before they get busy killing each other. It's the lack of safe territory that drives the animals insane and homicidal.
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  • Posted by $ allosaur 8 years, 2 months ago
    Besides bloody Kalifornia, first thing me dino noticed about the map is that in Alabama my Jefferson County (it contains the city of Birmingham) is deep red. No surprise there.
    On another kind of map it would be a blue splotch on a red state~that blue splotch voting for The Evil Hag and other lib politicians who want to take my guns.
    Why? So I can't defend myself from all the blue splotch welfare-bred gang-bangers?
    Good golly me so solly! Me dino don't~nyah! nyah! nyah!~think so.
    I also notice that the counties containing Montgomery (state capital) and Mobile are a shade slightly less red with the county containing Huntsville trying to catch up.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    When you lose the respect for other people and see control as a way of life, murder then creeps into your list of tolerated activities. Look no further than the Clintons for an example of this.
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  • Posted by $ blarman 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Although that isn't necessarily the point, that would also be interesting to superimpose as another layer.
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  • Posted by Solver 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Has there ever been studies where hundreds of rats that had their teeth and claws removed and are all placed together? Do they all live in peace until their dying days?
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  • Posted by Madanthonywayne 8 years, 2 months ago
    Would love to see an overlay of Trump/Hilary counties, just eyeballing it looks like there’d be better than a 90% correlation.
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  • Posted by DrZarkov99 8 years, 2 months ago
    There have been numerous studies that prove a rat warren existence typical of inner city life breeds paranoia, hostility, and a lack of empathy. No amount of gun control can cure the elements that lead to violence of all types. Witness the fact that London now has more homicides than New York City, even though guns are outlawed in London. Stabbings and acid attacks are now the leading cause of homicides among Londoners, but gun violence is on the rise, because criminals pay no attention to gun restrictions.
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  • Posted by TheOldMan 8 years, 2 months ago
    The article does not differentiate between the murder methods, i.e. firearms, knives, arson, fights, etc...
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  • Posted by JuliBMe 8 years, 2 months ago
    Seems to me we need to control liberalism to control the murder rate.
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  • Posted by Esceptico 8 years, 2 months ago
    I did not do an analysis of the data here, but a quick overview suggests the most murders are committed in cities run by Democrats.
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  • Posted by CTYankee 8 years, 2 months ago
    Pfft! Are you actually trying to convince Progressive-Socialists with facts?
    ROFLMAO
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Clear proof no gun law will fix a problem based on people. You have to fix the people, and the problems they have are the same ones our own poor have, who do not want to have to work, learn and improve, in the welfare culture the left has built in the last 75 years.
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  • Posted by $ nickursis 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I agree, and now their is this constant stream of people wanting to "escape" the poverty, violence and criminals, only to bring it here when they show up, have no job, no skills, no english, and no way out. They (a group of them, not all) have no choice but to turn to gangs and criminals. That map says it all, Kalifornia is almost guilty of treason and criminal obstruction of justice in it's insane policies.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I loved Phoenix when I lived there in 1983,1990-1991. When I returned in 1999 it had changed almost completely. The large small town was gone. Liberals were running the AZ Republic and brainwashing the people, although the influx of people from Chicago, Detroit, and CA didn't help either.
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  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 8 years, 2 months ago
    Not surprising at all that the two biggest concentrations of red are where ILLEGAL ALIENS traverse routinely and call home. Phoenix is not a gun control state..even so, there is enough shit from south of the border to make crime, violent crime, a very real fact of life - "if I could get away no one would know and I would never be punished" One told a friend after a hit and run.

    You can't make this up.
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  • Posted by 8 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Most of the murders are in cities where gun laws are the most severe and the majority of voters ignore reality: government does not protect the people. The best security is owning and knowing how to use a firearm in self defense.
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  • Posted by Solver 8 years, 2 months ago
    There is a lot of red in California. If fact most of the state is red, blood red.
    It would be interesting to see a graph of leftist take overs versus murders in that state.
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