No...and yes. If one looks at the map of homicides in America by state, one notices that of course the worst region is the gun-friendly Deep South...but the equally gun-friendly Mountain state region is actually fairly safe.

I wondered about that for a long, long time and realized that it's not just the easy availability of guns, but the mixture of guns *and* a high rate of poverty. Yes, a prosperous state with lots of guns will have a higher homicide rate than one with much fewer guns, but it will still be a relatively safe area (compared to most areas in America).

I compare all this to where I have a second home, in Manila, Philippines, a true megalopolis with about 15M people in its metro area. It's truly wracked with poverty (by our standards), but it's much safer for me to walk around even at night. Sure, I might get mugged...but I'm almost certain to live through the experience. Why? Guns are *very* expensive there, and hard to get even for criminals.

Easy access to firearms *plus* a high rate of poverty will equal a tragically-high murder rate. It really is that simple.