Hawaii had the lowest gun-death rate in 2014 — the most recent year for available data — when looking at household gun-ownership rates. Rhode Island was not far behind.
The state with the highest gun-death rate was Alaska followed by Louisiana.
That news comes from a Violence Policy Center analysis of just-released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
According to a press release Monday from the Violence Policy Center, “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. However, even in these states the human toll of gun violence is far above the gun death rate in other industrialized nations.”
The total number of Americans killed by gunfire, says the group, dropped to 33,599 in 2014 from 33,636 in 2013.
“America’s gun death rates — both nationwide and in the states — dwarf those of other industrialized nations,” says VCP.
Hawaii earned top honors as the state with the lowest gun-death rate last year, too, while Alaska also had the highest gun-death rate, based on 2012 data. At the time, the VCP reached the same conclusion about gun-ownership laws and gun violence.
The new study comes as President Obama is expected to announce an executive order regarding gun control.
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