The five states with the highest per capita gun death rates that year were Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Wyoming and Montana.
“Each of these states has extremely lax gun violence prevention laws as well as a higher rate of gun ownership,” according to a press release.
A World War II USGI M1911 pistol.
Flickr: Mitch Barrie
States with the lowest overall gun death rates have lower rates of gun ownership and “some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the nation.”
The state with the lowest gun death rate in the nation was Rhode Island, followed by Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.
When it comes to gun ownership, just 9.7 percent of households in Hawaii have firearms. Our gun “death rate” is just 3.56 out of 100,000.
By contrast, 45.6 percent of Louisiana households have guns and the state’s gun death rate is 18.81.
Chad Blair is the Politics and Opinion Editor for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at cblair@civilbeat.org or follow him on Twitter at @chadblairCB.