We Are More Afraid Than Ever of Gun Violence, But the Truth Is the Murder Rate Is at a 50-Year Low

[gejohnston]

31. I will give you credit for rubbing the surface,

but not quite scratching it. You didn't exactly refute anything I said.

If you subtract the twenty worst cities and gangs, our murder rate is about the same as Germany's.

I may have misspoke that it would be the same as Germany's, but it would be closer.

So that's more than half the states that have a HIGHER than national murder rate.

Yes, all of the twenty worst among those states. Some with more than one. For example, Michigan has Detroit and Flint. New Jersey has Trenton and Newark. It is the high gang cities that off set the rest of the state. Our murder rate is very localized. You used Louisiana as an example. Let's take a closer look at Louisiana.
New Orleans had a murder rate of 57.6 per 100K. In total, half of all murders in the state are in New Orleans. New Orleans is less than ten percent of the population. If NOLA were to become its own state or country, the state's murder rate would be about 4.8 per 100K.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Louisiana

Of course, New Orleans is lower now than then. It is now less than 40 per 100K.
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-50-most-violent-cities-in-the-world-2015-1

Each of these states have at least one city that is a drug distribution hub and tend to have gang issues. BTW, why is North Dakota on the list?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state Given the drop over the past couple of decades, I doubt North Dakota had a spike, unless it has for the same reason Wyoming's spiked. The oil fields and fracking industries tend to send us other state's problems. Not so much the workers or the families themselves, it is the seedy "camp followers".