Orlando Shooting: The Key Things to Know About About Guns and Mass Shootings in America
In 2011, economist Richard Florida dove deep into the correlations between gun deaths and other kinds of social indicators. Some of what he found was, perhaps, unexpected: Higher populations, more stress, more immigrants, and more mental illness were not correlated with more deaths from gun violence. But he also found that states with tighter gun control laws appear to have fewer gun-related deaths.
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An important caveat is that correlation does not equal causation, and passing additional gun-control laws might not substantially reduce gun violence. For example, it could be that the states with stricter gun control laws are also states in which gun ownership is less prevalent. Since there are fewer gun owners in these states, there might also be fewer people advocating for gun rights. Because there are fewer guns in these states, there could also be fewer homicides, but the number of homicides could be related to the number of guns and not directly to the state’s laws.
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