In collaboration with Miller, Mother Jones crunched data from 2012 and found that the annual cost of gun violence in America exceeds $229 billion. Direct costs account for $8.6 billion—including long-term prison costs for people who commit assault and homicide using guns, which at $5.2 billion a year is the largest direct expense. Even before accounting for the more intangible costs of the violence, in other words, the average cost to taxpayers for a single gun homicide in America is nearly $400,000. And we pay for 32 of them every single day.

via The True Cost of Gun Violence in America | Mother Jones.

I did this post on a rush, so it is not written pretty.

Since 1989, Florida has averaged 1,100 homicides a year (1989 the highest with 1,405 and 2001 the lowest with 867 and actually not having very wild swings other than a continuous down trend) and as Motherjones says there is a cost to the taxpayers of $400,000 per homicide, so we get a yearly total of $440,000,000 obviously a number not to be sneezed at. But the whole tone of the article is we, poor taxpayers are being socked with this awful cost, right? So in reality, how big is the cost for the Florida taxpayer since our Gunshine State became the blight of civilization for our loose gun laws?

So, how much the average Floridian “paid” for a homicide? We take that $440,000,000 number and divided it by the number of Floridians in 1989 (12,797,318), the year with highest number of homicides and we get $34.38. per murder per Floridian. The same $440,000,000 divided into the 19,259,543 Floridians in 2013? It comes down to $22.84 per murder.

And you know the way I am doing the numbers is wildly in favor of Motherjones’ accounting. $440,000,000 of today’s dollars does not buy even close to the same amount of goods and services it did in 1989. Out of the 24 years, ten had numbers under 1,000 and only six over 1,100 and still, the cost per homicide – per Floridian dropped one-third. in a state awash with guns, loose gun laws and an increase of almost 2/3 of the population,

So, it is not just More Guns = Less Crime, we can make the case that More Guns in the hands of More People = Less Crime & Cheaper Costs.

I am going to need to consult John Lott about that.

(As usual, y’all check my math and let me know what corrections are needed)