People are statistically safer in New York City or San Francisco than in many rural or Southern Republican-led states.
A groundbreaking study also found that firearm fatalities are now more likely in small rural towns than in big cities — a reversal of historical trends. Thanks largely to soaring gun suicides, the most rural counties experienced overall firearm death rates 25 percent higher than the most urban counties in recent decades. That means the archetypal “American heartland” — often solid Republican territory — quietly endures a higher per-capita burden of gun death than metropolises like Los Angeles or New York.
The carnage encompasses tragic self-inflicted shootings, domestic violence with firearms, and, yes, the mass shootings that now regularly strike church gatherings, small-town Walmarts, and school classrooms in conservative communities.
No corner of the country is spared, but red America is bleeding most.
— Alain StephensReplicated under Fair Use from The American Right’s Self-Inflicted Gun Violence Crisis by Alain Stephens.