Some parts of the U.S. have gun death rates comparable to active conflict zones, according to a report comparing states and countries.
    • Jaderick@lemmy.world
      41·
      11 hours ago

      In fact, 6 of the 10 worst places on Earth for gun-related deaths are either U.S. territories or states: Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama have gun death rates even higherthan in countries the media and people online like to label as violent cesspools. Namely, those three states have more gun-related deaths than Haiti and Mexico. Mississippi has a gun death rate of 28.5 deaths per year per 100,000 people. According to the Commonwealth Fund, that’s almost double the firearm death rate in Haiti, where gang wars push people to starvation.

      Yes

  • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    212·
    11 hours ago

    One thing to note, those shootings are almost all meth heads and gangbangers blasting each other, not the random, “That could have been me!” violence people think of. I feel perfectly safe in Mississippi, not so much in the cities as the country, but still, I don’t belong to a group with rivals (or angry doped up white trash).

    Any surprise that poverty begets violence in our poorest state?

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        24·
        9 hours ago

        Those poverty levels are not remotely comparable. Haitian minimum wage is something like $150 per month.

        You can be poor as hell in MS and still own a gun. Hell, you may have not paid a dime for it if inherited. If you’re poor as hell in Haiti, you’re selling that gun to eat. If it doesn’t get stolen out your shack.

        And if you still think you have a “gotcha”, we’re talking about murder by gun. Want to talk murder in general?

        In 2023, the number of intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Haiti was estimated at 40.85

        It’s half that in Mississippi, the worst in the US.

        • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
          4·
          8 hours ago

          This is your final point you made “Any surprise that poverty begets violence in our poorest state?”. It would seem that Haitians are poor and Mississippi folks are poor. Both are experiencing violence. Attacking poverty is a good way to go in lowering violence. I would like to add on lowering the amount of guns floating around in a poor community is not a bad idea either. Both can be done at the same time.

        • benignintervention@lemmy.world
          4·
          8 hours ago

          This is a great point correlating gun access with gun violence. It shows that access to firearms is positively correlated with deaths by firearm