MSNBC
For Louisiana, the stakes could not be higher: it has the worst gun murder rate in the nation, and the highest rate of children killed with guns. Overall, guns have been used to kill more people in Louisiana in recent years than in any other state, according to a new analysis.
Between 2001 and 2010, 4,519 people were killed by guns here, more than a thousand more losses than U.S. combat troops suffered during the Iraq War. More than 75% of those victims were African-American. Haunted by the losses, members of the Black Caucus try again and again to introduce some measure of gun control legislation.
But their efforts are always thwarted while a far more powerful group of Republicans and white Democrats stokes Louisiana’s love affair with guns.
Guns are everywhere. On Mother’s Day, a shooting broke out at a New Orleans parade and two children were among 20 people wounded by gunfire. People were injured during a shooting after the Martin Luther King Day parade, and at another just before Mardi Gras festivities.
Yet the pro-gun beat is only getting louder.
“In Louisiana, as we’ve seen for a few years now, they are introducing legislation to allow more people to carry more guns in more places,” said Brian Malte, director of policy and advocacy for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
“If more guns mean a safer society, Louisiana would be the state with the lowest rates of gun violence. In fact, it has one of the highest because of a lack of gun violence prevention laws.”
Why is that? Why is Louisiana so much worse than the rest of the country if more guns make us safer?
Let me take a stab at that one? The "more guns make us safer" suggestion is a blatant lie propagated by the leaders of the gun-rights movement and repeated over and over again by the sheep-like followers who often don't even think for themselves. If they did, they'd immediately see the foolishness of such a position. Louisiana is proof.
Allow me to anticipate one of the common retorts we often hear. The above chart and its article is concerned with "gun" murders. When we remove the "gun" part, guess which state is still on top.
What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.