On Wednesday afternoon, up to 20 people were shot by multiple gunmen in San Bernardino, California. The shooting happened at the Inland Regional Center, an organization that offers services to the disabled.
This is yet another devastating reminder of how pervasive of a problem firearms are in America.
According to the Center for Disease Control, 33,636 people died due to gun-related causes in 2013, the year with the most recent data. The national average is 10.6 gun deaths per 100,000 residents.
But that number varies widely from state to state.
The Kaiser Family Foundation assembled a table of statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on 2013 mortality rates from firearms in each state. Kaiser combined various firearm-related causes of death, including assault by firearm, police shootings, suicide by firearm, and accidental discharges.
Some highlights:
• States with the highest rate include Alaska (19.8) and Louisiana (19.3). Alaska doesn't require residents to have a permit for carrying concealed weapons, while Louisiana does (but has fairly permissive gun laws otherwise).
• States with the lowest rate include Massachusetts (3.1) and Hawaii (2.6). Both states have some of the strictest gun control laws in the country.
This map shows how many gun-related deaths per 100,000 residents there were in each state in 2013:
