A right-wing gun nut friend recently sent me a map of the US showing how a high incidence of gun-related violence aligned perfectly with the dominance of liberals in the population. Yes, the more an area tended to vote Democratic, the more gun violence there was in that area.
As my friend illustrated so well, most people are more interested in advocating their own points of view than in actually trying to understand the complex world we live in. For some ineffable reason, I was able to discern after about four seconds of evaluation that his map was complete bullshit, created by some right-wing nut case for the purpose of further infuriating his or her already infuriated right-wing nut case brethrern.
Using a few minutes' internet research to find some actual facts, I came up with the following maps and related commentary/exercise.
Facts (or taken to be facts):
Map on left shows electoral college voting in 2012 presidential race. Blue = Obama/Dem, Red = Romney/Repub.
Map on right shows gun related deaths, lighter/yellower = fewer, darker/redder = more
(Reliable and reputable sources used for both maps; links available on request.)
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Hypothesis:
Obama-voting states are more liberal. Liberals have fewer guns. There will be fewer gun-related deaths in Obama-voting states.
AND
Romney-voting states are more conservative. Conservatives have more guns. There will be more gun-related deaths in Romney-voting states.
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Observations/Exceptions:
Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida: Voted for Obama, have high gun deaths. In other words, six states are exceptions in one direction.
North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska: Voted for Romney, have low gun deaths. Three states are exceptions in the other direction.
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Exercise:
Use the above maps to prove or disprove the hypothesis.
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