(Long Island, NY) New York State has the fourth lowest gun death rate in the nation according to a Violence Policy Center analysis of 2011 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. The report finds that states with strong gun violence prevention laws and low rates of gun ownership, like New York, have the lowest gun death rates in the nation. Conversely, those with lax laws and higher rates of gun ownership lead the nation in gun deaths.
The five states with the lowest rates are Rhode Island, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey where death rates range from three to five per 100,000. The top five most deadly states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Wyoming and Montana, with sixteen to nineteen deaths per 100,000, all have weak gun laws and high rates of gun ownership.
“New York’s fourth place ranking is a testament to the effectiveness of its strong gun laws and relatively low rates of gun ownership,” said Leah Gunn Barrett, NYAGV Executive Director. “It’s especially impressive given our state’s population of nearly twenty million and the fact that New York hosts eighty million visitors per year. With the 2013 passage of the New York SAFE Act, which will keep more guns out of the wrong hands, we are hopeful that New York’s ranking will improve further.” Barrett added, “Even one death from gun violence is one too many. We will continue to advocate for strong gun laws such as Nicholas’s Law, which will require the safe storage of guns in the home to protect children.”
America’s gun death rates far surpass those of most other Western industrialized nations. Even New York’s low rate, 5.1 per 100,000, is five times the death rate of the United Kingdom and Australia, 0.23 and 0.86 per 100,000, respectively.
New Yorkers Against Gun Violence is a statewide advocacy group working to reduce gun violence through advocacy and education designed to encourage action, influence public opinion and lead to policy change. With a primary focus on New York State, the organization also advocates at the local and national levels for sensible laws, policies and practices that protect New York State residents from gun violence. www.nyagv.org.
