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Showing posts with label gun control. Show all posts

November 17, 2017

America's Love Affair With Guns

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Having lived abroad for more than 2 years now has given me a certain perspective about the perception of guns in America. I can't think of anyone that I've met here in the UK that DOESN'T think Americans love their guns. People assume everyone in America has multiple guns in their house and they're dumbfounded as to why Americans would need them in the first place.

Another debate for another time.

I bring this up because I saw this really striking viz from Danne Woo, Founder of data.visual. I met Danne a few years ago when I was working at Facebook and we've stayed in contact since. I really like the work he and his team create.


I reached out to Danne because I wanted to recreate his chart in Tableau for practice. He gladly sent me the data and encouraged me to do so. I designed it slightly differently, while maintaining the thematic colors Danne chose.

What did I change?

  • I put the title in the form of a question.
  • I included a BAN for the total number of background checks to give the viz (and the problem) some overall scale.
  • I removed the gridlines (thanks to Jonathan MacDonald for that suggestion).
  • I made the white line thicker than the red line to make it stand out more.
  • I made the scale all the same number type. The original mixes K and M.

The best way to improve it to practice. Learning is never done.

October 5, 2017

Gun Ownership vs. Gun Control - Which do Americans prefer?

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Earlier today I posted a viz from FiveThirtyEight about the growing divide in opinion about gun control and gun ownership when comparing political affiliation. I was quite inspired by the simplicity of the viz and how effectively it communicates, so I decided to use it for vizspiration.

The data used was readily available on Pew Research Center, so I used Google Sheets to import the data. Since FiveThirtyEight focused their viz on those people preferring gun rights over gun ownership, I only used that metric.

However, on the Pew Research Center website there are many other ways that the data is sliced demographically. I started by trying to create a single dashboard that contains each of the demographics displayed simultaneously and it was a mess! In the end, I went with a parameter to allow the user to choose the demographic they are interested in.

What did I find interesting?

  • Overall, there's been a steady increase in the percentage of people preferring gun rights over gun control. Sounds like the NRA's propaganda is working.
  • As stated by FiveThirtyEight, the gap between political parties is growing larger and larger. In the most recent poll (7 Apr 2017), only 20% of self-identified Democrats favored gun rights over gun control, whereas 79% of Republicans favored gun rights. It's this growing partisanship that is really damaging America.
  • The younger generation is less likely to favor gun right over gun control. Is the proliferation and accessibility to information from the younger generation signaling a shift towards more liberal views?
  • The most educated Americans favor gun control over gun rights. Are the undereducated preyed on by the NRA machine?
  • The gap between whites and blacks is as stark as the gap between Republicans and Democrats. 30% more whites than blacks prefer protecting gun rights.
  • Regionally, the South and Midwest prefer gun rights compared to the West and Northeast. This pretty much aligns with any election map you look at.
  • People that live in cities are 26% less likely to favor gun rights over gun control compared to those lives in rural communities. Again, this falls pretty much in line with political affiliation.

UPDATE: Thanks to Rody Zakovich for this great tip for shading between two lines. Much better than my area chart trick!

November 15, 2015

America's Gun Problem: How Frequently Do Mass Shootings Occur?

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The terrorist attacks by ISIS are despicable, cowardly, sad. I can’t even begin to fathom what would make one human want to kill another. Needless to say, a solution is needed, and it won’t be easy.

But as I was checking on my friends in Paris, a question popped into my head: How often do the biggest of mass shootings occur in the United States? With that question in mind, I started by exploring the data with Vizable and shared the results on Twitter.


I knew there was a story to be told; I also wanted the people interacting with the story to create their own definition of mass shooting. So I opened the data in Tableau and started answering the question myself. I had a few goals:

  1. Show all of the days when people were shot
  2. Allow the user to create their own definition of mass shooting (I chose 10)
  3. Highlight the days that “qualified” as mass shootings
  4. Show the cyclical nature of shootings

To me, looking at the data this way shows the staggering numbers of shootings in the US.

October 3, 2015

Mass Shootings: America's Gun Violence Problem

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Another mass shooting in the USA. 17 more people shot. 10 dead. 7 wounded.

So what’s one to do? How about find some data and see if a visualisation can have an impact?

This morning, I woke up early thinking about the data. I didn’t want data about murders; I wanted data about shootings. Why? Because if shootings don’t occur, then gun murders can’t occur.

A Google search turned up the amazing website Mass Shooting Tracker. They’ve been collecting data about mass shootings since 2013. Their explanation of what and why they track what they do is critical:
The most obscene incidents of gun violence usually do not make the mainstream news at all. Why? Because their definition is incorrect. The mainstream news meaning of "Mass Shooting" should more accurately be described as "Mass Murder".
The old FBI definition of Mass Murder (not even the most recent one) is four or more people murdered in one event. It is only logical that a Mass Shooting is four or more people shot in one event.
Here at the Mass Shooting Tracker, we count the number of people shot rather than the number people killed because, "shooting" means "people shot".
I downloaded all of the data, parsed out the locations, loaded them into Batch Geocoding and viola…all the data I needed to build this viz.


December 14, 2012

A map that says it all - States with stricter gun control laws have fewer deaths from gun-related violence

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From the Washington Post. Enough said. Let the political posturing begin.

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