An Idaho resident is glad that his state doesn’t have “Canadian-style” murder rates

Here’s what a man from Idaho has discovered in his research:

“It is certainly true that for Canada as a whole, murder rates are still considerably lower than for the United States as a whole. For 2011, Canada had 1.73 homicides per 100,000 people; the United States had 4.8 murders and non-negligent homicides per 100,000 people.  What I find fascinating, however, is to look at murder rates for Canadian provinces and compare them to their immediate American state neighbors.”

“For example, I live in Idaho.  In 2011, our murder rate was 2.3 per 100,000 people.  We have almost no gun-control laws here. …  We are subject to the federal background check on firearms, but otherwise there are no restrictions. Do you want a machine gun? And yes, I mean a real machine gun, not a semiautomatic AR-15. There is the federal paperwork required, but the state imposes no licensing of its own.”

“Surely with such lax gun-control laws, our murder rate must be much higher than our Canadian counterparts’ rate. But this is not the case: I was surprised to find that not only Nunavut (21.01) and the Northwest Territories (6.87) in Canada had much higher murder rates than Idaho, but even Nova Scotia (2.33), Manitoba (4.24), Saskatchewan (3.59), and Alberta (2.88) had higher murder rates.  (Okay, Nova Scotia is just a teensy-weensy bit higher than Idaho for 2011.)

What about Minnesota? It had 1.4 murders per 100,000 in 2011, lower than not only all those prairie provinces, but even lower than Canada as a whole.  Montana had 2.8 murders per 100,000, still better than for Canadian provinces and one Canadian territory.  When you get to North Dakota, another one of these American states with far less gun control than Canada, the murder rate is 3.5 per 100,000, still lower than Manitoba, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.  And let me emphasize that Minnesota, Montana, and North Dakota, like Idaho, are all shall-issue concealed-weapon permit states: nearly any adult without a felony conviction or a domestic violence misdemeanor conviction can obtain a concealed weapon permit with little or no effort.

At this point, you’re going to point out that there are many American states that have very high murder rates, especially in the South, and on the coasts. This is certainly true, but irrelevant to the question of whether gun-control laws reduce murder rates. If gun availability or a lack of restrictive gun-control laws was sufficient to explain any substantial part of murder rates, then these low restriction states should have higher murder rates than their Canadian neighbors, and yet if anything, the situation is the reverse: the Canadian provinces often have higher murder rate than their low gun-control American counterparts.”

Interesting. So gun control is not correlated with murder rates, at least not very well.

I add that the murder rate for Vermont (the state with the most liberal guns laws in the Union) and New Hampshire (the “live free or die” state) is 1.3.

Unfortunately, these crime stats pose more questions than they answer. Questions like: if gun control doesn’t cause high murder rates, then what does? And why are the murder rates of the prairie provinces so much higher than for central Canada, PEI, New Brunswick and Newfoundland? And why are the murder rates for Canada’s northern territories higher still? It also begs the question, why are the murder rates for those northern plains states so much lower than for the southern and coastal states? And why are the two highest murder rates that are recorded for all states, provinces and territories found in Puerto Rico followed by Nunavut?

Do I know the answer? Nope. Not me. No sirree, Bob. For me it’s aaall just a big mystery. Haven’t got a clue. And don’t let anybody tell you any differently.

Comments

[Wilson]

There is a very simple answer to your query. It's not popular, and it certainly isn't "politically correct." Take a look at the geographical areas most densely populated with aboriginals... and the numbers will coincide with them. I haven't done the math for the U.S... but you'll find similar results can always be associated with a "dysfunctional" minority.

[Bill]

See simple! An armed society is a polite society. The criminals are at least respectable. If you don’t own a gun your gonna be a victim. You own a gun your safe. It’s better to have a gun and never need it then need a gun and not have it.

[Frank Gaudet]

P E I Canada =

ONE murder in 5 years.

Pop 120,000

[Joe]

Unemployment Rate: 54 percent

If you would research the demographics... you'll very quickly discover that all is not a "mystery."

[Joe]

Unemployment figure was for Nunavut.

[old white guy]

in the high murder cities and states such as chigago, if the black on black crime is taken out the rate drops by over 50%. of course guns are outlawed in chicago, yet there are over 500 murders a year.

[Frank the tank]

Harper has been PM for 7 years...who we blame?