http://archive.azcentral.com/community/pinal/20110127arizona-gun-death-rate-nations-worst-sev.html
Arizona's gun-death rate among the worst in U.S.
by Ronald J. Hansen - Jan. 27, 2011 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
From murders to suicides, Arizona is consistently among the most deadly states in the nation for gun violence, federal records show.
Over a nine-year span, the state's rate of gun deaths of all types ranked seventh in the United States and sixth for gun-involved slayings, according to an Arizona Republic analysis of death reports compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The rankings are based on data from 1999 to 2007, the most recent statistics available from the CDC.
Overall, violent-crime rates in Arizona are not far from rates for the U.S. as a whole, but the rate of deaths specifically tied to guns surprises national experts.
Crime-victimization patterns that measure factors such as age and racial demographics suggest that Arizona would figure to be among the states with a lower risk for violent crime.
"That's much higher than I would expect the state to be," said Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California-Berkeley who studies demographic factors in crime. "The demographic-risk profile should keep Arizona lower. It's higher than expected. Now, the question is: Why?"
Gun violence is facing renewed scrutiny after the Jan. 8 massacre near Tucson that killed six and wounded 13, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., a gun-rights advocate herself.
Arizona, as the cultural symbol of the Old West with a fierce independent streak and strong support for gun rights, is the focus of that interest.
"You've got a lot of guns," Zimring said. "To some extent, the laws are maybe trying to encourage that; and if so, you're paying a price for it. But there are a lot of other factors."
As of October, Phoenix and Tucson trailed only Houston for the number of federal licenses allowing the sale, resale, manufacturing or importation of firearms, according to data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. As a state, Arizona ranked 16th in licensed gun dealers. Texas was first.
Tucson ranked first among the nation's cities for licenses specifically involving the manufacturing of firearms, and Phoenix and Mesa were in the top four.
Ariz. gun murders
Arizona reported more than 3,000 murders with guns over a nine-year span (1999-2007), according to CDC data. That amounts to six gun murders per 100,000 residents. The national rate was about four.
Arizona's total gun-death rate - a figure that includes murders, suicides, accidents, police shootings and other unclassified killings - was nearly 16 per 100,000. The national rate was about 10.
"Places that have more guns have more gun violence, and Arizona is very high on that," said Gary Kleck, a criminologist at Florida State University whose work on the defensive use of firearms has made him one of the leading scholars on gun rights. His book, "Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America," raised questions about the value of gun-control laws.
"You can take very seriously the CDC data," he said, "as long as you keep in mind that there isn't any relationship between gun-ownership rates and the total suicide rate or homicide rate."
Crime data collected by the FBI show Arizona is not especially violent. From 2005 to 2009, the state's murder rate was higher than the national average, but its overall violent-crime rate fell below the national average in 2008 and 2009. That was largely because of steep drops in aggravated assaults, which fell below the national rate and far outnumber slayings.
Zimring and Kleck caution against presumptions that state gun laws explain gun-death numbers, saying there are too many other factors involved.
The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates for stricter gun control, rates states based on their gun laws, with low scores signaling liberal gun laws and high scores conservative ones. Arizona receives two of 100 possible points.
Neighboring states Nevada and New Mexico, also considered to have more liberal gun laws, fared poorly in the CDC data. But states such as Texas, with relatively loose gun laws, and California, with its strict gun laws, finished near the national average for overall gun deaths.
Six of the states that Brady rates as having weak gun-control laws are in the top 10 for highest overall gun-death rates, excluding Washington, D.C., which easily has the worst violence rate but is not a state. At the same time, six of the states it rates as having strong gun-control laws were in the top 10 for lowest un-death rates.
But only two of the states that Brady rates as having relatively weak gun-control laws are in the top 10 for homicides with guns. Meanwhile, two of its states with relatively strong laws also appear in the top 10.
A look at suicides
If Arizona is relatively high in gun deaths, it is likely because the state is one of the leading states in the nation for gun ownership, Kleck said.
One of the best indicators of gun ownership is the level of gun-involved suicide rates, he said. The CDC numbers show Arizona ranked ninth in suicides with guns.
The suicide numbers differ sharply from Massachusetts', a state about as populous as Arizona but generally regarded as less gun-friendly.
In the last two years of data (2006-07), when the states were closest in population, Arizona reported 880 suicides not involving guns; Massachusetts reported 751. At the same time, Massachusetts reported 215 suicides by guns while Arizona reported 1,115.
Even the police in Arizona kill more often than in other states, the data shows. Arizona ranked sixth in legal-intervention deaths involving firearms, although such incidents are rare.
Arizona's rate was double the nation's in that category. Arizona authorities used guns to kill 113 people over nine years.
Staff writers Ryan Konig and Daniel Gonz�lez contributed to this article.
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