In the ongoing debate over crime rates and gun control, one of the most common claims made by the left is that gun crime is worse in red states.
During a Senate hearing this week, a so-called gun expert from Yale made the very same argument.
“Why do you think that Chicago has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range?” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) asked Dr. Megan Ranney from Yale’s School of Public Health. “Do you think it’s because of Chicago citizens who have no criminal record but who have a gun in their home or perhaps for hunting, or do you think it is because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm?”
“Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri actually have higher firearm death rates,” Ranney replied.
This claim is not true.
Billy Binion, the associate editor at Reason magazine, debunked Ranney’s claim in a post on X/Twitter. “Some recent stats: Mississippi’s gun homicide rate: ~13 murders per 100,000 people; Louisiana’s gun homicide rate: ~15 murders per 100,000 people; Missouri’s gun homicide rate: ~11 murders per 100,000 people; Chicago’s gun homicide rate: ~29…
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