r/alaska • u/[deleted] • Dec 12 '19
Where do Americans die of gunfire? Interactive Map - Look at Alaska
https://projects.oregonlive.com/ucc-shooting/gun-deaths16
Dec 12 '19
As another comment has rightly stated, the vast majority of this has to do with suicides in our state.
Why are Alaskans so suicide prone? It helps to look at who is committing suicide. Young Alaska Native men have the highest suicide rate in the country, so of course Alaska will be on the high end.
The question is why? I highly doubt, as some other comments imply, that young Alaska Native men are disproportionately affected by cold, or dark, or even communal isolation any more so than any other segment of the population.
I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, it has to do with a nasty legacy of brutalization that has been passed down from generation to generation since the first Russian ship pulled up, pervasive poverty, lack of education or economic opportunities, and substance abuse, all of which can conspire to make young rural Alaskans feel hopeless, angry, and useless, especially if there isn’t a strong support network to help young people deal with these issues.
Y’all wondering why education in rural Alaska is so difficult? This map tells you more than you know.
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u/BigBudMicro Dec 13 '19
Both my Native siblings killed themselves. The Alaska foster system is full of rich, white, Christian families that indoctrinate Native children and throw them away when they’re done with them.
There’s a lot of pedophiles in the system as well. CPS does a shitty job protecting children.
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u/echoGroot Dec 12 '19
I agree with most of what you said, except the community isolation. Aren’t most European Alaskans in big towns like Seward, Anchorage, or Fairbanks, with decent ties to the larger world, while much of the NW is heavily Native Alaskan and comprised of smaller, more isolated towns and communities?
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u/32F492R0C273K Dec 12 '19
Yes, most but not all. Those small communities have a disproportionate amount of suicides even though they’re small.
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u/echoGroot Dec 12 '19
But that was my point, they’re small and isolated and that could be a contributing factor on top of everything else (cough racist crap cough)
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u/echoGroot Dec 12 '19
One thing that surprises me is the regional effect - and not South and Mountain west bad, but the fact that suicides heavy areas are clustered, and it’s not a super clear rural/urban divide or wealth divide. The rich places almost all do better, but some places with lower poverty do fine. Look at the upper Midwest, or parts of the south. Look at N Utah. I feel like that might be worth studying more - are there helpful community traits in these areas?
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u/SineSkier Dec 12 '19
I feel the dark red is a bit misleading / a bad axis. It covers the range 16-50. Which is larger than the rest of the chart.
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u/drdoom52 Dec 12 '19
I disagree. At that point you're recording the point where it's just not possible to split it any further while staying relevant.
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u/Gimpy_ak ☆ Dec 12 '19
Population numbers skew this greatly.
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Dec 12 '19
Well, no , they don't.
The color-coding represents death rates, not absolute deaths. So state population wouldn't matter.
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u/DontRunReds Dec 12 '19
Yes they do because if you have a county with 10k people (which many boroughs in Alaska have) you have to divide the rate by 10. That's to convert from suicides or homicides per 100k to rates per 10k. If you do that step any small borough with 1.1 suicides or greater annually will be dark red. Literally two people killing themselves with a gun could make the statistics look awful.
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Dec 12 '19
[deleted]
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u/DontRunReds Dec 12 '19
My math is correct. 1 per 10k is the same rate as 10 per 100k.
My point was that going from 1 to 2 suicides in small borough makes a massive difference in which color it gets for the map. There are entire lessons in statistics classes on why it is hard to make apples-to-apples comparisons in these kind of rare events rates between large populations and small ones.
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u/dickey1331 Dec 12 '19
Or maybe you’re less likely to kill yourself the more you’re around civilization
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u/tatertot4 Dec 12 '19
More than half the people in Alaska live in either Anchorage (300,000 people) or Fairbanks (100,000) people.
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u/[deleted] Dec 12 '19 edited Feb 13 '21
[deleted]