Guns And The Right To Carry

From the eMail inbox sent to me

Subject: FW: Finally, a well-dressed Wal-Mart shopper

Just a housewife out shopping in Alaska

No permit required in Alaska for either open (must be 18) carry or concealed (must be 21) carry.

CHECK THEIR CRIME RATE, LOWEST IN OUR NATION?
Why would that be??
NOT one school shooting either.

* * * * *
"CHECK THEIR CRIME RATE"
     Ok, I'll do that.
"NOT one school shooting either."
     OK I'll do that too

SCHOOL SHOOTINGS* 4/23/2008-- 6 arrested in Alaska school shooting plot

* Evan E. Ramsey (born February 8, 1981) a former Alaskan high school student who perpetrated a school shooting at Bethel Regional High School in Bethel, Alaska, on February 19, 1997. During the shooting, Ramsey killed two people and wounded two others.

MURDER RATESIn 2011 Alaska was ranked 26th per 100,000 in overall murders. Today it's ranked almost at the top for murder by firearms (see chart below). So it's not like Alaska is some sort of safety harbor when it comes to NOT getting murdered by a gun. In fact quite the opposite.

When it comes to the death penalty, states without the death penalty have had consistently lower murder rates. For 2011, the average Murder Rate of Death Penalty States was 4.89 while the average murder rate of states without the death penalty was 4.13 (18% less).

Alaska allows residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit and also allows the open carry of a handgun without a permit. The District of Columbia doesn't allow guns yet in 2012 was Ranked 8th Among Nation’s Most Populated Cities

What Are The Conclusions?
Based on the above data, whether a state imposes the death penalty, has restricted gun rights or not matters little when it comes to murder rates. Just because a bunch of people are walking around packing heat (whether or not concealed) doesn't back up what the this email claims (that people are safer because of it). This aside from the fact that "Concealed Carry Is Now Legal in All 50 States" anyway. Therefore Alaska is not special in any way.

If you look over the list of school shootings they occur in states whether people have guns strapped to their hips or not. So this whole argument about walking around like a gunslinger has little to do with either school shootings or preventing murders.

File this one under bull crap!

SEE:
10 Pro-Gun Myths, Shot Down (Mother Jones)