Arizona ranks 16th in most gun related deaths in the US
In the state where gun laws are the least restrictive according to State Law, a new study by 24/7 Wall St. says Arizona is one of the top twenty states with the most gun activity.
“The sad part about it is everyone is talking about the violence and talking about what happened and they are kind of glorifying what happened,” said local gun shop owner, Mike Bricks.
However, there isn’t much to glorify. Bricks has seen the increase of calls requesting one specific weapon in the past few weeks, the AR-15. The most popular rifle among mass shooters. “People are starting to say well if I buy one now I’ll have it before any ban goes through and we’re starting to see an increase in number of calls on those type of weapons and other things,” expressed Bricks.
In Yuma , according to YPD the number of calls for gunshots fired in 2017 was 26, but the numbers in gun violence activity differ .
“Within Yuma city limits we had four homicides, aggravated assaults approx. six and reported drive-by shootings we had eleven,” said Yuma Police Department Sergeant Lori Franklin.
According to 24/7 Wall St., Arizona has the 16th most gun-related fatalities in the U.S. at 15.2 % per 100,000 people, exceeding the national rate of 11.73 deaths
Sergeant Lori Franklin says it is best to share information you know about a suspicious incident before it takes off.
“With what is going on lately within the U.S. if you see something suspicious, if you hear something suspicious… let us check them out. We rather check it out and find out it’s nothing than it be something…”
