Gun Ownership and Gun Homicide

Hi Humans,
The NRA says more guns in the community creates greater protection from gun crimes. It doesn't make sense to this little doggie, but many humans with their big human brains believe that stuff. We dogs are not so gullible. Anyway, a research study was done last year at the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health and published in the American Journal of Public Health which correlated gun ownership with homicide rates in each state in the USA. And surprise surprise, more guns = more gun homicides!
Here is a copy of the abstract in PUBMED (US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health )

Am J Public Health. 2013 Nov;103(11):2098-105. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301409. Epub 2013 Sep 12.

The relationship between gun ownership and firearm homicide rates in the United States, 1981-2010.
Siegel M¹, Ross CS, King C 3rd.
Author information
Michael Siegel is with the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA. Craig S. Ross is with Virtual Media Resources, Natick, MA. Charles King III is with Greylock McKinnon Associates, Cambridge, and Pleiades Consulting Group, Lincoln, MA.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
We examined the relationship between levels of household firearm ownership, as measured directly and by a proxy-the percentage of suicides committed with a firearm-and age-adjusted firearm homicide rates at the state level.
METHODS:
We conducted a negative binomial regression analysis of panel data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web-Based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting Systems database on gun ownership and firearm homicide rates across all 50 states during 1981 to 2010. We determined fixed effects for year, accounted for clustering within states with generalized estimating equations, and controlled for potential state-level confounders.
RESULTS:
Gun ownership was a significant predictor of firearm homicide rates (incidence rate ratio = 1.009; 95% confidence interval = 1.004, 1.014). This model indicated that for each percentage point increase in gun ownership, the firearm homicide rate increased by 0.9%.
CONCLUSIONS:
We observed a robust correlation between higher levels of gun ownership and higher firearm homicide rates. Although we could not determine causation, we found that states with higher rates of gun ownership had disproportionately large numbers of deaths from firearm-related homicides.