"Ed Huntress" wrote:

It's high, Ed, but when did it become # 1?
I think it was around 2004 or 2005.
Those are the CQ Press rankings, based on where a state stands on a variety
of violant crime stats:
"The Safest and Most Dangerous State rankings are determined using rates for
six crime categories -- murder, rape, aggravated assault, burglary, robbery,
and motor vehicle theft -- by calculating a state's position relative to the
national average for each category. Crime categories are weighted equally,
so that state comparisons are based purely on how states performed against
the national average. The weighted, aggregate scores are totaled, and a
state is assigned a final score. The farther below the national average a
state's crime rate is, the safer it ranks; the farther above the national
average, the more dangerous."

The M-Q/CQ Press rankings are used in a range of fields. I've checked them
against the FBI's UCR stats in the past, and they're accurate
representations of what they say they are.
http://www.cqpress.com/product/Crime...ings-2008.html

I don't doubt that there is a lot of crime in this state (I've been in
Vegas since 1998) and that it is primarily due to Vegas in the South.
I would speculate that there are also some fairly skewed distributions
aka some quite safe areas and some very, very unsafe areas. So by and
large if you stick to the safe areas, you don't notice. :-)

I lived in Cali and Mass before NV and I like that the gun laws are
"liberal" :-) here. I kick myself for not picking up a $2000 full
auto Vector Uzi about 10 years ago.

Personally I would correlate a high crime rate more to lack of
educational attainment/opportunities rather than "liberal" :-) gun
laws. Look and Finland and Switzerland - lots of guns (admittedly
highly regulated) in the general population yet very low crime. Both
are wealthy, well-educated countries. (I would also assume highly
"mono-racial") Look at Colombia and Peru - very tough gun laws yet
very high crime rates. These countries are not rich, only the upper
class is well-educated (superbly actually) and also have to contend
with the white/black skin thing.

Not surprisingly, NV also ranks pretty low, like 1-3 from the bottom,
in educational rankings as well. Parents will protest if band or
sports gets funding cuts but math/science don't get a peep or a bake
sale.

A closing comment on the gun thing - 10 years ago in Vegas it was not
surprising to see televised news segments of a local newscaster
(female even!) down at the range squeezing off some rounds. Back then
if there was a "child had an accidental discharge with parental gun"
incident the newscaster would say something like "parents be smart and
keep those guns locked up!" and I would cheer *LOUDLY* and send nice
emails to the station. Nowadays it is more "conservative" :-) and not
as pro-gun.

JJ, a gun loving, Obama loving=Palin hating, highly educated
liberalish but actually libertarian leaning (too bad so many
libertarian candidates are loons) guy.