I am taking a research class for my masters degree. I have been wanting to run a correlation between Brady scores and crime rates for some time now, and I finally got around to doing it today. I did a bivariate correlation between a state's Brady score and its violent crime rate per 100,000 people and a state's Brady score and it's homicide rate per 100,000 people. I found that there is not a significant correlation between a state's Brady score and either its homicide rate or its violent crime rate.
This was a pretty crude comparison, and it's possible the results would have been different if I would have put more time into it. For example, obviously not every homicide or violent crime involves the use of a gun. Also, I don't believe that the state level is the best way to study gun crime, but I was more interested in doing it quickly. The crime rate in a large metropolitan area is going to be much different than the crime rate in a small rural town of a few hundred people, no matter what the gun laws are in a state.
Anyways, just thought I'd share this with everyone.
This was a pretty crude comparison, and it's possible the results would have been different if I would have put more time into it. For example, obviously not every homicide or violent crime involves the use of a gun. Also, I don't believe that the state level is the best way to study gun crime, but I was more interested in doing it quickly. The crime rate in a large metropolitan area is going to be much different than the crime rate in a small rural town of a few hundred people, no matter what the gun laws are in a state.
Anyways, just thought I'd share this with everyone.