A commenter on The Other McCain asked me about the homicide rate in St Louis; we had been discussing the homicides in Philadelphia and Chicago. Why, I’m glad he asked! The Gateway City has had 103 murders so far in 2021, and, unlike other cities, the SLPD divides them up by race. Five whites, two Hispanics, and one Asian have been victims, while 95 blacks — 77 males and 18 females — have been murdered there. With a population of 294,890, and a projected 189 murders, this would give the city a homicide rate of 64.07 per 100,000.

But, as I like to do the math — and we all know that math is raaaaacist, so I must denounce myself in advance — 77 homicides of black males in 199 days works out to an estimated 141 homicides for the entire year. With an, again, guesstimated, black male population of 67,060, that works out to a black male homicide rate of 210.26 per 100,000 population.

Now, if you are a white male, estimated population 67,234, there will be 5.5 murder victims this year; I’ll round up to 6. They are facing a murder rate of 8.92 per 100,000 population.

Now, if the problem is just the availability of guns, and the white-to-black population ration in St Louis is very close, 46.53% to 46.41%, why would black males be 23.57 times more likely to be murdered there?