Do stricter gun laws reduce firearm gun deaths?

Introduction

Gun violence is an important issue that uniquely affects the Unites States. This is an analysis of the relationship between gun laws, firearm ownership and gun death rates across all 50 states. Using data from various sources including the CDC, the associations between these numbers can easily be visualized.

Data

We will be examining the following data:

• total firearm mortality for each state per 100,000 persons

• total number of firearm laws for each state

• estimated household gun ownership for each state

head(firearms)

      region STATE DEATH_RATE OWNERSHIP_RATE LAW_TOTAL
1    alabama    AL       25.5           55.5        10
2     alaska    AK       22.4           64.5         3
3    arizona    AZ       20.1           46.3         8
4   arkansas    AR       21.9           57.2        11
5 california    CA        8.6           28.3       111
6   colorado    CO       17.1           45.1        30

Plotting the linear relationships

Mapping the data

Conclusion

These plots and maps suggest clear links between gun laws, gun ownership and gun deaths. States with more laws on the books tend to also have lower gun ownership rates and states with high gun ownership tend to report higher mortality rates.