As usual, Jennifer Carlson publishes her insightful thoughts before I can even formulate mine.
Whatever your position on America’s racial past and present, Carlson’s essay highlights the fact that the aftermath of a rare and horrific event is a terrible time to try to make public policy about guns.
Especially when the issue is not about guns.
Gun Culture 2.0 
Does anyone have any thoughts on why the gun murder rate in SC is 15x the rate in VT? (0.3/100K pop). Same 42% gun ownership. Slightly stricter laws in SC. 15x is a lot.
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I am not intimately familiar with either state, but some differences that stand out for me between Vermont and South Carolina:
1. 2009-2013 poverty rates: 11.8% in Vermont, 18.1% in South Carolina (15.4% national average).
2. South Carolina more populous and urbanized than Vermont.
3. South Carolina more racially diverse than Vermont.
4. South Carolina more consistently politically conservative than Vermont
Those are all real differences between the two states. Whether they explain the difference in gun homicide rates, I don’t know, but they each probably have something to do with it.
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