Report: Alabama has 2nd Highest Gun Death Rate
Pro-Gun-Control Group issues report.
States with the Five Highest Gun Death Rates
Rank State Gun Ownership Gun Death Per 100,000
1 Alaska 56.4 percent
2 Alabama 49.5 percent
3 Louisiana 49.0 percent
4 Mississippi 54.3 percent
5 Oklahoma 46.7 percent
States with the Five Lowest Gun Death Rates
Rank State Gun Ownership Deaths/ Per 100,000
50 Massachusetts 14.3 percent
49 New York 22.2 percent
48 Hawaii 12.5 percent
47 Rhode Island 15.9 percent
46 Connecticut 22.2 percent
The Violence Policy Center —which opposes gun violence and supports gun control—– provided the stats. Their news release also includes this:
“The state with the highest per capita gun death rate in 2016 was Alaska, followed by Alabama. Each of these states has extremely lax gun violence prevention laws as well as a higher rate of gun ownership. The state with the lowest gun death rate in the nation was Massachusetts, followed by New York. Each of these states has strong gun violence prevention laws and a lower rate of gun ownership.
Nationally, the total number of Americans killed by gunfire increased to 38,658 in 2016 from 36,252 in 2015. The nationwide gun death rate in 2016 was 11.96 per 100,000, an increase of 6.0 percent from 2015’s gun death rate of 11.28 per 100,000. The increase in the overall firearm death rate was driven largely by firearm homicides, which increased by 10.4 percent (from a rate of 4.04 per 100,000 in 2015 to 4.46 per 100,000 in 2016). The firearms suicide rate was up 3.6 percent from 2015 to 2016.”
