Homicides and Open Usage of Guns: A Case of Louisiana, USA

Louisiana is known as the state with the highest per capita murder rate or homicides rates (12.4 per 100,000) among all U.S. states in 2017 for the 29th consecutive year (1989–2017). Despite the fact that the United States of America is known as the leading country in the world security, yet its sub-cities, provinces, and states are battling with security issues regarding internal murder or killing rates or homicides of which Louisiana is not in an exception. Meanwhile, the country has several gun policies, which allow the adult citizens to openly use or hold gun without restrictions. In light of these gun polices in some of the states including Louisiana, this study investigates the relationship between the open usages of gun and murder or homicides rates in Louisiana. The study uses secondary sources of data ranging between 1990 and 2012. The study applies a simple regression and correlation analysis to establish the relationship between open gun use and homicides. The study finds a weak significant positive relationship between the homicides rates and the open usages of gun among adult citizens in the state based on limited data. I therefore, recommend that both the federal and the local or state government should put restrictions on the open usages of guns in order to control the high murder or homicides rates across the provinces, cities, and the states.

In the light of the above homicides rates in Louisiana, the state still practiced open gun ownership or usage of gun among its citizens. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between homicides rate and rate of open gun ownership or usage among Louisianans.

METHODOLOGY
The study is quantitative in nature and involves a simple regression analysis. Both ordinal and ratio scale variables were used for the data analysis. The research used Ordinary Least Square (OLS) analysis and correlation analysis to examine the relationship between homicides rates and gun ownership rates in Louisiana. The paper used secondary sources of data from FBI Uniform Crime Report for the murder or homicides data, and the open gun usage (a proxy from license firearm ownerships) from the Firearms Commerce in the United States, annual statistical update for 2017. The dependent variable is homicides rates or murder rates in Louisiana, and the independent or explanatory variable is the gun ownership or open usage of gun. The data spanned from 1990 to 2012 based on availability. The ordinary least squared (OLS) model of a simple regression below was used to evaluate the data. (Christiaan Heij, 2004)  Where Y is the dependent variable (homicides or murder rates in Louisiana), X is the independent variable (Open usage of gun among adults Louisianans), a is the intercept, and b is the slope of the equation (or model) or the relationship between homicide (dependent variable) and the (independent) variable is open gun usage rate.
The study was coded and analyzed with the help of SPSS 20.0. The data was presented and discussed with the help of charts, tables and p-values analysis. Perhaps, since the study was done to see the relationship between open gun usage and homicides or murder rates in Louisiana. Before computing the test value for the Ordinary Least Squared (OLS) test, there is a need to state the hypothesis.
H0: There is no significant relationship between gun ownership or open usage of gun and murder rate/homicides rates.
H1: There is a positive significant relationship between gun ownership or open usage of gun and murder rate/homicides rates.

RESULTS AND DATA PRESENTATION
The discussion is organized into three sections: (1) summary statistics, (2) correlation analysis, and (3) regression or ordinary least squared analysis. Sample Size 23 In all 23-sample size were used for the data analysis. Based on the summary statistics, the minimum homicides rates was 10.00% and the maximum was 20.30%, while the minimum gun usage rates was 3.20%, and maximum rates was 20.40%. The average homicides rate between 1990 and 2012 was 14.0435%, while the average frequency usage of gun among adult citizens in Louisiana between 1990 and 2012 was 9.6087. In terms of the measure of dispersion or variability; the standard deviation associated with the homicides data was 3.04763 smaller than the standard deviation associated with open usage of gun among citizens with a value of 5.12693. The range associated with the homicides data was 10.30% smaller than the range associated with open usage of gun among citizens with a value of 17.20%. This implies that the gun usage data is widely spread or disperse away from the mean than the homicides data given the measurement with respect to the standard deviation and the range of the available information.  -tailed) .067 N 23 23 Regarding the correlation analysis between the homicides rates and open usage of gun rates in Louisiana, it was observe that there is a positive association or relationship between the two variables. However, there is a weak positive relationship between the homicides rates and open usage of gun rates with a correlation value of 0.389 less than 0.500. It is weak because the relationship was not significant at 0.05 (5%) significance level or conventional level but was statistically significant at 0.10 (10%) significance level. In reference to the coefficients table, the constant term exhibited a very high positive significant impact or relationship to the regression model, with a p-value of 0.000 significant at all the significance levels at 1% (0.01), 5% (0.05), and 10% (0.10). That is, if the explanatory variable of open usage of gun is set to zero, then the homicides rates will be significantly equal to 16.264%.
For the case of the open usage of guns, the coefficient value is 0.231 with a p-value of 0.067 greater than 0.05 (5%) but less than 01.0 (10%). This implies that the open usage of guns is statistically significant at 10%, meaning 49 that a 1% increase in the open usage of gun will cause a 0.231% increase in the homicides rates in Louisiana. Based on the significance level at 10%, I can confidently reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, there is a positive relationship between the open usage of gun rates and the homicides rates in Louisiana. This implies that whenever the open usage of gun rates among the citizens increases there is a likelihood of increasing the homicides rates. Therefore, all other things being equal, I recommend that both the federal and the local or state government should put restrictions on the open usage of gun across the nation in order to control the homicides rate. A model case can be observed from a lower crime or homicides rates in the United Kingdom, wherein, even police officers are not permitted to openly use guns but rather a shocking button (rod).