Gun deaths among US kids continue to rise; Southern states have worst rates | Hacker News Reader

Gun deaths among US kids continue to rise; Southern states have worst rates

arstechnica.com

8 pointsrntn10 comments

Link to study: https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/152/3/e20230...

Am I reading this correctly - that there is a higher correlation (of death) to economic status than to anything else?

Figure 4 is where the article got the "correlation of death to economic status". Figure 4 is a scatter plot, showing each STATE's poverty vs death rate. Yes, you could argue that there is a correlation. However, you can also argue because you are not going into the actual specifics of each murder/suicide -- there is a significant potential for error. i.e., does a state's poverty rate and death rate representative of the deceased's demographics?

What caught my attention is that Louisiana had almost double the death rate of South Carolina. Something is awfully wrong in Louisiana. Below are the quotes that I pay attention to.

Older adolescents aged 15 to 19 years accounted for 82.6% of firearm deaths in 2021

Males accounted for 84.8% of all pediatric firearm mortalities in 2021

With respect to firearm homicides, in 2021, the death rate was 11 times higher for Black children compared with white children

For firearm suicides, white children accounted for 78.4% of all firearm suicide deaths in 2021

Louisiana had the highest death rate per 100 000 persons (17.0), followed by Mississippi (14.8), Alabama (11.4), Montana (11.1), and South Carolina (10.2)

But… but… a well-armed society is a polite society? Something about high gun death rates seems oddly impolite.

Not if the kids dying were trying to rob a liquor store when they got shot.

Lethal force against one criminal stops hundreds or thousands of future crimes by that one criminal.

It also deters other potential criminals.

If guns were lethal 100% of the time, we would have much less crime.

Yeah, John Carmack should have been shot when he was breaking and entering his school to steal computers. Think of all his infamous deeds that could have been prevented.

> It also deters other potential criminals.

[citation needed] The original article would imply this simply ain't so. This follows the same logic that the death penalty acts as a deterrent when no correlation between states with a death penalty and lower violent crime rates exist (let alone a causal link).

More Guns, Less Crime: Understanding Crime and Gun Control Laws by John R. Lott Jr. https://www.amazon.com/More-Guns-Less-Crime-Understanding/dp...

> despite all the attacks by gun-control advocates, no one has ever been able to refute Lott’s simple, startling conclusion that more guns mean less crime.

Crimes rates vary significantly between the states, with states with such as Alaska, New Mexico, and Tennessee experiencing much higher crime rates than states such as Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

For reference, Alaska, New Mexico, and Tennessee are not lacking in guns per capita. (New Mexico is in fact 3rd in gun ownership behind Wyoming and D.C.)

Some of the world's lowest crime rates are seen in Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Japan, and New Zealand. Each of these countries has very effective law enforcement, and Denmark, Norway, and Japan have some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world.

So… more guns clearly does not equate to lower crime either globally or nationally. Unless of course you're trying to sell a book, which gullible folks are quite eager to buy and publicize in order to justify their love of guns over reason.

north eastern gun owning states such as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine are doing just fine. We see Louisiana, Mississippi, and Washington DC as deep purple on this map. Everyone knows what this chart is measuring.

Population density? Amount of gerrymandering and voter suppression? Length of time spent in segregation? Amount of annual snowfall?

By all means, share with us what YOU think "everyone" knows.

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