A Free-Market-solution for gun-violence.

[DetlefK]

I saw this coming up in some editorial cartoons and I thought... Why not? What's the problem? Why would anybody be against this?

My proposal is fairly simple:
Imagine a weather-map, but instead of temperatures, humidity, air-pressure and winds it shows you for each state things like:
- mass-shootings per citizen and year
- gun-murders per citizen and year
- fatalities from gun-accidents per citizen and year
- casualties from gun-accidents per citizen and year
- gun-suicides per citizen and year

Citizens would see which states are nice and which are not. Citizens would see how state-laws correlate to gun-violence and they would be free to give their politicians the appropriate "praise".

[1939]

1. According to a recent reference here in DU

The five safest states in the union for not being a "victim of guns" are South Dakota, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Iowa. I doubt that their gun laws (which are lax) are the reasons these states are so "safe".

[DetlefK]

2. Well, it would be nice to start an evidence-based discussion at all, wouldn't it?

[Kotya]

4. Gun violence (not counting suicides)

Is less of an issue about "safe" states vs. "unsafe" states.

It is about "safe" zip codes vs. "unsafe" zip codes. These violent zip codes skew the rest of the state.

Look at Chicago with its annual homicide rate in the hundreds, yet most of Chicago you could walk around at night without a care in the world. Almost all the murders are taking place in a small handful of neighborhoods.

[Lizzie Poppet]

10. Exactly. Such a map would be genuinely informative if it were by ZIP code.

Gun violence is, in general, markedly concentrated.

[Eleanors38]

3. Another reason to head for Vermont!

[flamin lib]

5. Vermont death rate from guns is 9.2/100,000.

National average is 10.2.

Vermont isn't all that much. It's just a little place with not many people.

[Eleanors38]

6. I din't plan on suicide. nt

[flamin lib]

8. gun death is gun death. nt

[Lizzie Poppet]

9. I disagree.

The vastly different causal factors behind murder and suicide mean that the best ways to address either are going to be very different. If one is looking to find safe places to live for one's family, to stick to the general topic of the thread, suicide rates are basically irrelevant. Rates of homicide and other violent crimes are, on the other hand, quite pertinent.

[flamin lib]

16. Ok, check minto dmestic violence rates and get back to me. nt

[Eleanors38]

11. Death is death. nt

[hack89]

7. Put up a map of poverty and education levels and you will get the same results. nt

[Eleanors38]

12. Yeah, but that requires work and expense.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

13. Why just guns?

Then you have places like Detroit where people are too poor to move away but the police chief advises citizens to arm and defend themselves.

[YabaDabaNoDinoNo]

14. We already know what are the best states, where the best jobs are, where the best schools are, etc

We also know where the guns come from too and interestingly enough the places where the guns come from are also not the best states to live in either and bring up the rear in all measurable standards of quality of living

[branford]

15. Hey, instead of states, why don't you make it a map

of cities or counties, or better yet, congressional districts.

Such a proposal will almost assuredly get near unanimous Republican support.

Heck, they could make an fairly reasonable argument that they key to lowering gun deaths in your neighborhood is voting for the GOP...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_elections,_2012#/media/File:US_House_2012.svg

http://data.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/gun-deaths

[beevul]

17. A map like this one? Works for me.

Citizens would see which states are nice and which are not. Citizens would see how state-laws correlate to gun-violence and they would be free to give their politicians the appropriate "praise".

Works for me.

[BlueJazz]

18. I'd make it so everytime somebody kills a person everybody pays 1/10 of 1 percent of their salary

...to a fund.