Much has been made of Dylann Roof purchasing a gun due to a failed FBI background check before his massacre of 9 African Americans in Charleston, SC. Mother Jones reported on a study of gun deaths and gun ownership in each state in 2013 by Kalesan et al. in the journal Injury Prevention.
Having looked at the concentration of hate groups in each state (adjusted for the state’s population), I thought I would take a look at how gun ownership relates to the concentration of hate groups in the US. I was unable to access Kalesan’s data but I was able to access data on gun deaths which they showed is correlated with gun ownership.
I was able to access data on gun death rates in the 50 states plus the District of Columbia (DC) in 2013 and I did correlate that data with the rates of hate groups tracked by the Southern Poverty law center. The correlation coefficient for gun death rates and the concentration of hate groups is 0.52. DC is an extreme value for both gun deaths and hate groups. Rerunning the correlation without DC the value becomes 0.47. A correlation of +1 would produce a chart where all of the states form a perfect straight line sloping upward.
 |
| Plot of State Hate Group rates vs.Gun Death Rates |
The chart at the bottom is on that I created in the stat package R (which I am learning). The point in the upper right hand corner is DC. It graphically demonstrates the relationship between the concentration of hate groups and the murder rate. This means that in states with a higher number of hate groups per million, a higher hate of gun deaths is seen. A cause and effect relationship between these two phenomenon is harder to establish.
|
STATE
|
RATE Gun Deaths
|
pop2012
|
Hate groups
|
Hate Groups per million
|
|
AL
|
17.6
|
4822023
|
22
|
4.56
|
|
AK
|
19.8
|
731449
|
1
|
1.37
|
|
AZ
|
14.1
|
6553255
|
20
|
3.05
|
|
AR
|
16.8
|
2949131
|
24
|
8.14
|
|
CA
|
7.7
|
38041430
|
77
|
2.02
|
|
CO
|
11.5
|
5187582
|
17
|
3.28
|
|
CT
|
4.4
|
3590347
|
5
|
1.39
|
|
DE
|
10.3
|
917092
|
4
|
4.36
|
|
DC
|
22
|
632323
|
15
|
23.72
|
|
FL
|
11.9
|
19317568
|
58
|
3
|
|
GA
|
12.6
|
9919945
|
50
|
5.04
|
|
HI
|
2.6
|
1392313
|
0
|
0
|
|
ID
|
14.1
|
1595728
|
9
|
5.64
|
|
IL
|
8.6
|
12875255
|
23
|
1.79
|
|
IN
|
13
|
6537334
|
26
|
3.98
|
|
IA
|
8
|
3074186
|
5
|
1.63
|
|
KS
|
11.4
|
2885905
|
5
|
1.73
|
|
KY
|
13.7
|
4380415
|
15
|
3.42
|
|
LA
|
19.3
|
4601893
|
20
|
4.35
|
|
ME
|
10.9
|
1329192
|
2
|
1.5
|
|
MD
|
9.7
|
5884563
|
15
|
2.55
|
|
MA
|
3.1
|
6646144
|
12
|
1.81
|
|
MI
|
12
|
9883360
|
18
|
1.82
|
|
MN
|
7.6
|
5379139
|
8
|
1.49
|
|
MS
|
17.8
|
2984926
|
22
|
7.37
|
|
MO
|
14.4
|
6021988
|
23
|
3.82
|
|
MT
|
16.7
|
1005141
|
8
|
7.96
|
|
NE
|
9
|
1855525
|
9
|
4.85
|
|
NV
|
13.8
|
2758931
|
8
|
2.9
|
|
NH
|
6.4
|
1320718
|
7
|
5.3
|
|
NJ
|
5.7
|
8864590
|
44
|
4.96
|
|
NM
|
15.5
|
2085538
|
6
|
2.88
|
|
NY
|
4.2
|
19570261
|
42
|
2.15
|
|
NC
|
12.1
|
9752073
|
33
|
3.38
|
|
ND
|
11.8
|
699628
|
1
|
1.43
|
|
OH
|
11
|
11544225
|
31
|
2.69
|
|
OK
|
16.5
|
3814820
|
17
|
4.46
|
|
OR
|
11
|
3899353
|
9
|
2.31
|
|
PA
|
11.2
|
12763536
|
41
|
3.21
|
|
RI
|
5.3
|
1050292
|
3
|
2.86
|
|
SC
|
15.2
|
4723723
|
20
|
4.23
|
|
SD
|
10
|
833354
|
3
|
3.6
|
|
TN
|
15.4
|
6456243
|
37
|
5.73
|
|
TX
|
10.6
|
26059203
|
57
|
2.19
|
|
UT
|
12.6
|
2855287
|
6
|
2.1
|
|
VT
|
9.2
|
626011
|
4
|
6.39
|
|
VA
|
10.2
|
8185867
|
26
|
3.18
|
|
WA
|
8.7
|
6897012
|
10
|
1.45
|
|
WV
|
14.3
|
1855413
|
10
|
5.39
|
|
WI
|
9.7
|
5726398
|
10
|
1.75
|
|
WY
|
16.7
|
576412
|
2
|
3.47
|
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