ok - the key figures were in the full article.
The homicide rate for blacks is 10 times the rate for whites even though gun ownership is dramatically lower among blacks. So, the gun control laws in the cities are an utter failure at keeping down “gun deaths” in black populations.
Although gun control laws may have a slight impact on white suicide (by gun). There is no overall suicide rate given. So we don’t know if whites just choose another method.
“There is no overall suicide rate given. So we don’t know if whites just choose another method.”
Good point. Not trusting the WP, I found more information at www.suicidology.com. Massachusetts does have a low overall suicide rate (8.1), and Montana, Wyoming, etc., do have high rates (about 23). But Virginia and Georgia have overall suicide rates of about 12, about half those of Montana and Wyoming — yet have gun laws comparable to Montana and Wyoming, not Mass.
The crux of the Post’s article is the much higher incidence of suicide with firearms among whites than blacks.
In its rush to advocate for gun control, the Post ignored the obvious mathematical implications of their own story: states with higher percentages of whites (plus Native Americans who have high suicide rates) and lower percentages of blacks, will have higher total suicide rates than states with the opposite.
Per suicidology.com, the overall 2010 suicide rate for whites is 14.1, but 5.1 for blacks. Suicide-by-firearms rates in the WP story track closely to the overall rate for both races. Suicide-by-firearms rates vary by race because suicide rates by race vary, not the other way around.
Differences in homicide and suicide rates by race are a worthy topic, but there is a different story here than the Post would have us believe.