I am way out of my element here. More of a creative guy than a research person.
Watching the Rightwing Noise Machine flounder for their response to the (most recent) shooting has been infuriating. Others have chronicled the predictable progression of thoughts/prayers, easy scapegoats, and cries not to politicize the killing of 19 children and 2 adults.
Ted Cruz (Evil-TX) mentioned today that the shooting happened because we, has a country, have turned away from God. So, I decided to see if there was a correlation between faith and gun violence.
I took the countries with the most atheists by percentage to see how these demon dimensions were managing the onslaught of gun violence and piles of bodies(/snark) Lo and behold the number of guns, deaths, and mass shooting incidents are far lower in these Godless wastelands.
I share the image so that you might use it to respond to the RW Uncle or high school classmate on facebook.
A note on the data
- Sweden and Norway have high gun ownership because they are avid hunters. They couple this with strict licencing and training.
- The 107 mass shooting incidents number from Mother Jones will be the most controversial. I liked their rationale for the count. Three or more fatalities and a public crime scene. This helped limit gang shootings and shootings in conjunction with a robbery or other crimes. It also helps focus on the uniquely American idea to murder large groups of strangers with a gun.
- The low atheism and high gun ownership/violence levels for America might lead to speculation that faith indicates the potential for violence.
Data Sources