Why does eastern Kentucky have one of the highest murder rates in the country?

[Dinner]

I've see Fox News making a lot of hay about what they call the "Murder spree" in Chicago which they do while showing pictures of menacing young black men and mumbling about the President coming from Chicago. Yet when you look at the numbers some of the highest murder rates per capita in the country come from lily white eastern Kentucky where everyone is right wing, owns a gun, and generally are both poor and highly religious. This place is pretty much the stereotype of poor white trash.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/199...stern-kentucky

I'd cut & paste the article but it is really too long.

If one believes the NRA's claims then eastern Kentucky (a place where gun ownership is almost universal) should be one of the safest places in the country yet instead it has one of the highest murder rates in the country nearly all of them using guns. If we're to believe the claims made by the extreme right wing (and I mean the racist Stormfront types) that minorities cause crimes while all white places are supposed to be model communities yet in reality those claims are no where near the truth because eastern Kentucky is as white as it gets yet it still has a massive violent crime rate higher than most cities.

[Berzerker]

hatfields and mccoys still going at it

[ZEE]

Traditional Oerdin thrade.

[ZEE]

lol he upvoted it

[The Mad Monk]

Let's turn this around. Why, with its huge social safety net, massive police force and highly invasive laws, does Chicago have as high a murder rate as Eastern Kentucky?

[Asher]

Chicago has a high minimum wage and universal healthcare?

[Asher]

Chicago had a ban on handguns from 1982 to 2010, correct?

[Asher]

Chicago also has 6x as many guns per capita as NYC.

And the vast majority guns used in crimes in Chicago aren't purchased in Chicago.

Most significantly, it is important to understand that Chicago is not an island. Although Chicago has historically had strict gun laws, laws in the surrounding parts of Illinois were much laxer — enabling middlemen to supply the criminals in Chicago with guns they purchased elsewhere. Forty three percent of the guns seized by law enforcement in Chicago were originally purchased in other parts of Illinois. And even if the state had stricter gun laws, Illinois is not an island either. The remaining fifty seven percent of Chicago guns all came from out of state, most significantly from nearby Indiana and distant Mississippi — neither of which are known for their strict gun laws.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/02/15/1599631/no-chicago-isnt-proof-that-gun-regulation-doesnt-work/

So such a leading question was disingenuous.

[Ben Kenobi]

Let's turn this around. Why, with its huge social safety net, massive police force and highly invasive laws, does Chicago have as high a murder rate as Eastern Kentucky?

Dammit, too many good posts, not enough thanks.

[Asher]

I like how you waited until the argument was dismantled before voicing your fervent support for it.

[Ben Kenobi]

I like how you waited until the argument was dismantled before voicing your fervent support for it.

Your argument is that 'Chicago has a ton of guns'. Texas has even more guns and has a lower murder rate than Illinois as a whole. KY has even lower murder rates than even TX.

[kentonio]

Anyone who thinks that guns are the only reason for the high murder rate is stupid. Equally, anyone who thinks that guns do not contribute to the high murder rate is also stupid.

[giblets]

Sure they do contribute to the murder rate, and they might continue to make that contribution even after they are banned, just as illegal drugs continue to contribute to various social problems.

[kentonio]

No arguments there.

[Felch]

Because pro-government *******s keep marijuana illegal. Eastern Kentucky is a big part of the Appalachian marijuana belt. If people can't rely on courts to regulate their business affairs, then they often resort to violence.

Murder would go down considerably in KY and Chicago if the war on drugs were ended. I believe that drug laws play a much bigger role in the violence than the availability of guns.

http://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs1/1540/marijuan.htm

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-09-30-kentucky_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip