As Tenn. lets guns in eateries with booze, states' gun-death and -ownership rates are compared

"As Tennessee prepares again to allow guns in restaurants that serve alcohol, a nationwide survey by gun-control advocates claims more guns mean more crime and more deaths, with Tennessee near the top of the list. Gun-rights supporters say it's all a numbers game and that guns actually drive down crime," Matt Lakin reports for the Knoxville News-Sentinel.

The state Legislature has overridden Gov. Phil Bredesen's veto of a bill that will allow holders of gun-carry permits to take their weapons into any restaurant selling alcohol, though they can't legally drink while carrying and restaurant owners could still ban guns on their individual properties. An earlier law was declared unconstitutionally vague.

Lakin reports that the Violence Policy Center, a Washington-based group that wants to ban handguns, "ranks Tennessee in seventh place nationally for gun-related deaths, at a rate of 15.03 per 100,000 people. That's above a national average of about 10 gun deaths per 100,000, according to the survey. Tennessee's household gun ownership rate is about 46 percent, the VPC estimates." The data are based on statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for causes of death in 2007, the most recent year available. (Read more)

VPC lists gun-death rates by state here but does not list gun-ownership rates, except for the five states with the lowest rates (Hawaii, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York) and the five highest rates (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alaska, Alabama, Nevada). Its critics say some states with high gun-ownership rates have low gun-death rates. At our request, VPC gave us the study with the state-by-state chart of gun ownership, which we have put into a sortable Excel spreadsheet file and posted here. The data are from 2002; VPC, citing an author, says the data are the most recent available.