The gun control debate is back in the news thanks to a senseless mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, which resulted in the death of nine students and left several more wounded. Despite President Obamacalling for stricter gun laws, and even with celebrities like Amy Schumerechoing his plea, debate still rages over whether it's a good idea to restrict gun ownership.
Slate pretty much cleared up this question using data from The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The center graded each state's gun control laws: An "A" grade means the laws are strict, and an "F" means they're liberal. (States like Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York fall into the former category; Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi are in the latter.) Then each dot, which represents a sate, is positioned, "according to how it was ranked for its gun control laws, from weakest to strongest, and its 2013 gun deaths rate rank, from lowest rate to highest."
As you can see, in 2013, states with stricter gun control laws had far fewer gun deaths. As Slate points out, correlation doesn't equal causation, but other studies and statistics, including the fact that countries with more guns have higher rates of homicide, seem to point toward a simple solution to fewer gun-related death: Fewer guns.
