The horrific killing of 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., revived the debate over gun control in the United States. President Barack Obama outlined his controversial proposal for gun control last Wednesday, including requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales, strengthening the ban on assault weapons, and limiting high-capacity ammunition magazines.
What effect new gun control measures will have in Florida is still a matter of speculation and debate. But a review of Florida homicide data from 2000 to 2011, the most recent year for which such data is available, shows the impact of firearms in murders. In 2011, 70 percent of murders in Florida involved firearms, up from 56 percent in 2000. This data, presented in the visualization above, shows that over the last decade, the likelihood that a murder in Florida will involve a firearm has steadily increased.
You can find an interactive version of this graph at the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting.
– Data visualization by Grant Smith and research by Mc Nelly Torres. This post originally appeared on the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting website and was reposted with permission.
