That is correct. What the GC activists do to try to carry their point is to cite numerous articles in which states having the lowest "gun deaths" or "gun violence" are those the most restrictive in handgun ownership and use. What they don't tell the reader is that in the statistics, gun use to save one's life or property are mixed in with the subcategories of "crime violence" or "homicide" or "aggravated assault" and thus inflate those numbers for the states that are oriented toward observing the Second Amendment and more permissive.
But this hidden lie is uncovered by examining the criminal violence statistics where violent robbery is the cause, which includes only the events in which the person is being robbed are the only ones included. In this case, the most restrictive states rise to the top of numbers of people being forcefully robbed, obviously without self-protection.
This proves that John Lott's conclusion cited in the title of his 1998 book "More Guns -- Less Crime" is proven, and the Gun Controllers' false argument is destroyed.
In the ranking by state of gun deaths caused in the course of an incident mis-attributed to only criminals is in decreasing numbers. Note that in it, including the robbery category, the violence of the District of Columbia heads the lists. In the robbery category, the most restictive states rise to the top of having the most deaths caused by robbers:
Violent Crime | Homicide | Rape | Robbery | Aggravated |
Assault | ||||
Dist. Columb | Dist. Columb | Alaska | Dist. Columb | Dist. Columb |
New Mexico | Louisiana | Arkansas | California | New Mexico |
Alaska | New Mexico | Michigan | Maryland | Alaska |
Arkansas | South Carolina | Colorado | New York | Arkansas |
Louisiana | Alabama | Wyoming | New Mexico | Louisiana |
Tennessee | Arkansas | Utah | Washington | Tennessee |
California | Missouri | Nevada | Nevada | California |
Colorado | Alaska | Oklahoma | Illinois | Colorado |
South Carolina | Tennessee | North Dakota | Alaska | South Carolina |
Missouri | Maryland | South Dakota | Colorado | Missouri |
Michigan | Georgia | Nebraska | Texas | Michigan |
Nevada | North Carolina | New Mexico | Arizona | Texas |
Texas | Pennsylvania | Montana | Oregon | Arizona |
Arizona | Illinois | Texas | Pennsylvania | New York |
New York | Mississippi | Missouri | Louisiana | Oklahoma |
Oklahoma | Virginia | Idaho | Tennessee | Montana |
In the ranking by state of gun deaths caused in the course of an incident mis-attributed to only criminals is in decreasing numbers. Note that in it, including the robbery category, the violence of the District of Columbia heads the lists. In the robbery category, the most restictive states rise to the top of having the most deaths caused by robbers:The data were NOT about gun-involvement, which may have occurred in these crimes of force, but are not separable from the events. What is important is that restriction of personal armament of a law-abiding citizen resulted in an increase of violent crimes in those states as compared to more gun-permissive states, information which the gun-control activists omit in their appeal to deprive one of @nd Amenment rights.
The source for my table as from the reording of the data in this table:
List of U.S. states and territories by violent crime rate (click here) taken from Wikipedia, where the data in this table are from the FBI and for the year 2022.