ANALYSIS | The states that suffer the most armed violence share this characteristic

The US has nearly half the world's civilian-held weapons 0:53

(CNN) ––

People can debate the need for more or fewer armed guards in America's schools, drills to deal with an active attacker and even whether or not it's a good idea for teachers to be armed.

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But there is one thing that is irrefutable about the available data on gun violence.

And that the information is limited because until recently the federal government was prohibited from collecting this data.

The irrefutable fact is that where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.

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And this is true despite the fact that Texas Governor Greg Abbott tried to explain away the deaths from the shooting at an elementary school in his state this week by comparing them to gun violence in Chicago.

"I hate to say this, but in Chicago every weekend there are more people getting shot at than in schools in Texas," Abbott said Wednesday.

And he did it to argue that stricter gun laws are not the solution.

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Indeed, Chicago records an appalling number of gun deaths each year.

CNN has reported this problem.

But Texas has more gun deaths, and by a wide margin, than any other state, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Texas added 4,164 gun deaths in 2020, the most recent year of data the CDC has released.

That figure represents a rate of 14.2 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants.

California, by comparison, recorded 3,449 deaths: a firearm death rate of 8.5.

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However, Texas is not the state with the highest rate of gun deaths.

Even, it is far from the first place.

The states with the highest rates of gun deaths are:

• Mississippi: 28.6

• Louisiana: 26.3.

• Wyoming: 25.9

• Missouri: 23.9.

• Alabama: 23.6.

• Alaska: 23.5.

And this is the moment where the lack of good federal data hits us.

It's hard to find solid rates on gun ownership.

The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization, tried it, publishing data on average gun ownership by state between 2007 and 2016.

All of the states with the highest rates of gun deaths are among those with the highest rates of gun ownership.

• Mississippi: 50% of adults live in a household with a gun.

• Louisiana: 48%

• Wyoming: 59%

• Missouri: 48%

• Alabama: 50%

• Alaska: 59%

The US is the country with the largest circulation of weapons in the world 0:55

And, by the same token, where there are fewer guns, there are fewer gun deaths.

The states with the lowest rates of firearm deaths in 2020, according to the CDC (along with the percentage of households with firearms in 2007-2016, according to RAND) were:

• Hawaii: 3.4 (8% of adults live in a household with a gun).

• Massachusetts: 3.7 (10%).

• New Jersey: 5 (8%).

• Rhode Island: 5.1 (11%).

• New York: 5.3 (14%).

The advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, which supports tougher gun laws, takes CDC data on gun deaths per 100,000 residents and compares it to each state's gun laws.

The states with the lowest rates of gun violence are primarily among those with the strictest gun laws.

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By contrast, with the exception of Louisiana, the states with the highest rates of gun deaths and the highest rates of gun ownership are among those Everytown found to have the most flexible gun laws.

Most gun deaths are suicides

Obviously, mass shootings can happen anywhere, as they did earlier this month in Buffalo, New York, and this week in Uvalde, Texas.

This senator has been calling for gun control for almost 10 years 2:23

But most gun deaths don't involve a mass shooting: They're suicides.

In 2020, 54% of gun deaths in the US were suicides, which are far less likely to get sustained public attention, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of CDC data.

CNN wrote in 2019 about rising suicide rates and a study published in

that found higher suicide rates in rural areas and, in cities, if there was a gun store in the neighborhood.

Cities often have higher rates of gun violence than states

Chicago, in fact, has a horribly high murder rate.

Although the weapons there often come from a neighboring state.

There are higher murder rates in other cities, and they are often located in places with laxer gun laws, like Jackson, Mississippi.

Read this CNN report on the Jackson murders.

it's heartbreaking

According to Everytown's analysis of FBI data, the cities with the highest firearm homicide rates in 2020 are in states with more flexible gun laws:

• Jackson, Mississippi: 69 firearm homicides per 100,000 population.

• Gary, Indiana: 64.

• St.Louis: 50.

• New Orleans: 48.

• Memphis, Tennessee: 47.

Baltimore, where gun laws are relatively strict, was next on the list.

Murder rates are on the rise

The covid-19 pandemic has led to an increase in gun violence.

And, in January, a CNN analysis found that 10 of the nation's most populous cities broke homicide records last year, largely due to guns.

The cities were: Philadelphia;

Austin, Texas;

Columbus, Ohio;

Indianapolis;

Portland, Ore.;

Memphis, Tennessee;

Louisville, Kentucky;

Milwaukee;

Albuquerque, New Mexico;

and Tucson, Arizona.

In the big cities hit hardest by gun violence, there are areas that are relatively free of gun violence compared to areas that are under attack, researchers at the Brookings Institution found in a report they published last month.

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In Chicago, they said, gun homicides in 2019 and 2020 were concentrated in neighborhoods far from downtown "that have long suffered from severe disinvestment as a result of white flight. And are now centers of concentrated poverty." with predominantly black residents.

In other words, it is the generations of neglect and division that help drive the gun violence homicide rate in cities.

All of these deaths — rural suicides, urban murders, and mass shootings everywhere — have one thing in common: guns.

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