The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has launched “CrimAdvisor.com,” a website that riffs on TripAdvisor.com in that it is (jokingly) designed to give the lawless a reference on which states are best suited for gun-related crime due to loose laws regulating firearms.
As the Brady Campaign touts, “CrimAdvisor.com is a criminal’s best shot at a getting a gun… no matter who you are or what you’ve done. Check out this video to see the states most friendly to criminals because of their loose gun laws that make it easy for criminals to buy, carry, or even traffic guns.”
However, the Brady’s premise that states with weak gun laws are the most dangerous doesn’t hold water as The Daily Caller pointed out:
Brady applauds 10 states for their strict gun control: California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Maryland, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Illinois.
Together those states combined for a total of 2,953 gun related murders in 2010 according to the FBI. There is nothing like the safe streets of Oakland, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago and Newark to make your argument for keeping the citizenry unarmed.
The Brady Campaign points out 15 states where it is easiest to buy guns. However to make the comparison of 10 states to 10 states I’ve trimmed the list. To give the Brady Campaign the benefit of the doubt I kept in the top six states with the highest gun ownership rates in the country in the “bad state” list. If “more guns, less crime” is a false statement then the numbers will work in the Brady Campaign’s favor.
Ten dangerous states according to Brady Campaign are: Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nevada, Maine, Mississippi, Idaho and New Mexico. Yup, those are the states where the gun crazies live all right.
Together those 10 states combined for a total of 539 gun related murders. Those 10 states have less than half of the gun related murders than “can’t we all get along” California does alone.
It would appear that Crimadvisor isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s also worth noting that criminals who frequent gun-friendly states and cities are more likely to face armed resistance from law-abiding citizens when compared to states and cities that heavily regulate gun ownership. A gun-free zone is much more appetizing than one where citizens are armed and willing to protect themselves. As many gun-rights advocates argue, an armed society is a polite society.