Introduction
Gun violence statistics across the United States are alarming. About 72% of all murders across the nation involve the use of guns. The U.S. has more than 33,000 gun deaths per year.
The United States has by far the highest homicide-by-firearm rate among developed countries. People who support gun control argue that limiting access to guns will save lives and reduce crime; people who oppose gun control insist that it would actually do the opposite by preventing law-abiding citizens from defending themselves against armed criminals.
Inspiration
Gun violence is a very big problem in the United States, and gun control is one of the most controversial topics. Gun possession is constitutionally protected, but murders committed with guns are extremely common. As an international student, I have to face this problem when studying in the U.S. This lab makes me know more about gun problem in this country.
Tools & Process
Datasets：CDC, NYC Open Data, Kaggle
My dataset came from CDC, NYC Open Data, and Kaggle. Data published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is to help save lives and protect people from health, safety, and security threats. NYC Open Data is free public data published by New York City agencies and other partners. Kaggle is an online community that allows users to find and publish datasets.
The reason my dataset came from three different platforms is that it is difficult to find suitable datasets. The best format in QGIS is Shapefile, but the number of datasets with this format is much lower than CSV datasets. And if I want to use a CSV dataset, I have to check whether this dataset includes location data like latitude and longitude. Therefore, I spent much time finding this kind of dataset.
Data Visualization： QGIS
QGIS is a free and open-source geographic information system (GIS) application that supports viewing, editing, and analysis of geospatial data.
For datasets with geographic locations, it has the capability to detect such information and locate it. Besides, it can help users classify the data and display the category on the map. What’s more, users are able to customize the visual style of the map to make it more understandable to viewers. Users are able to change the symbology. In the beginning, I wanted to use a heatmap for my last map to show the heat places of shooting incidents. However, I found the heat map completely covers the map below, even if I have adjusted the transparency of colors. Therefore, I finally decided to use single marks to represent each shooting incident.
Results
1. Firearm Death Rate by State per 100,000 Population
From this dataset, we know that Massachusetts had the lowest death rate of 3.4 per 100,000 population in 2019, while Alaska had the highest with 24.4 deaths per 100,000 population.
According to the Department of Justice, 60% of adult firearm deaths are by suicide. Research has uncovered a correlation between people in states with lower population densities and a higher likelihood of suicides. The thought behind this finding is that lower population densities mean lower rates of loneliness, isolation, and lack of purpose. Wyoming and Alaska are two examples. The population of these two states is among the bottom five in the United States, and they have the highest suicide rates. Most suicides are done with firearms of some type. Wyoming has the highest gun ownership rate of 66.2%, followed by Alaska with 64.5%. Therefore, it is not hard to explain why the firearm death rates of these two states are among the top five in the United States.
Data source: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm
2. Mass Shooting in the United States (1982-2021)
This map shows the mass shooting in the United States between 1982 and 2021. The size of the points represents the number of deaths in that incident. There is no standard definition of mass shooting, and different data sources—such as media outlets, academic researchers, and law enforcement agencies—frequently use different definitions when discussing and analyzing mass shootings. In 2013, Congress defined mass killing as a single incident that leaves three or more people dead. The dataset I found is based on this definition.
Between 1982 and 2021, more than 1,000 people were shot and killed in the United States in a mass shooting, and 1400 more were shot and wounded. From the map, we can see that there are two incidents of which the number of deaths is between 44 and 58. One of them is Las Vegas shooting in 2017, which resulted in 58 deaths and 546 injuries. It is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Data source: https://www.kaggle.com/dsp112/us-mass-shootings-dataset-19822021
3. The Relationship between Income and Shooting Incident in NYC (From Jan to Sep 2021)
This map shows the relationship between income and shooting incidents in NYC. Each red point represents a shooting incident that occurred in NYC during the current calendar year. I used the dataset we ever used in class about the income level in NYC. I am wondering whether there is a relationship between income and shooting incident. From the map, It is obvious that most of the shooting incidents are concentrated in lower-income areas.
Data source: https://data.cityofnewyork.us/Public-Safety/NYPD-Shooting-Incident-Data-Year-To-Date-/5ucz-vwe8
Reflection
My reviewer gave me some feedback on the map’s title to make it more clear to viewers. Talking about future direction, there are still a lot of relevant data on the gun control problem. Because this lab focuses on maps, and the information that can be displayed on the map is limited, I added some additional information in the report to provide a more comprehensive background. If I had the chance to do further analysis on this topic, I would add more different kinds of charts. For example, a bar chart for gun violence incidents by year and a pie chart for suspects’ gender.
Overall, QGIS is a powerful software for processing geospatial data，but finding a suitable dataset is very challenging.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/gun-deaths-by-state