As Alex previously mentioned, stuyding your opposition is a sound strategy. I've read your copy/paste before. As previously mentioned to you from others in other threads, VPC already has a tarnished reputation for twisting numbers and words to look nice for their agenda. They've been caught repeatedly.
VPC/Brady Campaign has a reputation of twisting stats.
It is a special interest group. Look at unbiased raw numbers as I've presented in the OP. In 2001, a survey was taken by BRFSS estimating firearm ownership. Washington DC had lowest gunownership at 3.8%.
Washington DC murders per 100,000 in 2001? 40.3. Wyoming had #1 in highest gun ownership at a whopping 59%.
Wyoming murders per 100,00 in 2001? 1.8. These are the raw unbiased numbers. Like I said...VPC has been repeatedly caught. *edit 12/30* Their study was based on all the 50 states PLUS Washington DC (51), which they conveniently left out of
their ranking list. The truth would have gone against their agenda so they tailored their list. You need but only peel a layer off the surface by doing your own research and you can see how weak their stance is. Don't take my word for it, do your own research. */edit*
tl;dr - This isn't about only gun ownership; it's also about safety over all. You can single out any object or thing and demonize it if you tried just as hard. Cars. Age. Race. Knives. etc.
I highly recommend reading things to catch up to where the rest of us are at. At the very least, in regards to VPC.
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snip!* from campuscarry.com. *edit 12/30* I highly suggest you click it and read the rest. */edit*
There are two main problems with focusing on “gun deaths.†The first is that the total number includes both lawful interventions (
self-defense shootings and
shootings by police) and, more significantly, suicides. According to the Center for Disease Control,
56.2% of U.S. firearm-related deaths in 2007 were suicides. Should the focus of the gun control debate be on protecting the people who want to die or on defending the people who want to live? I tend to lean toward the latter.
The second problem is that the focus on “gun deaths†doesn’t reflect the overall safety of the populace. Is someone who is killed with a gun any deader than someone who is killed with a knife or a baseball bat or any other weapon?
In order to fairly assess whether or not living in a state with high gun ownership places a person at greater risk of meeting a violent end, we must compare not just the number of “gun deaths†but the number of homicides as a whole. *edit 12/30*

Sticking to the topic, when you clean off the jalousie windows and sweep aside the curtain, Hawaii is NOT the safest state in the US.