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The higher the rate of gun ownership in a state, the higher the likelihood of a law enforcement officer being killed, a new study has found.

Researchers, writing online in the American Journal of Public Health, used F.B.I. data on the rate of police officer deaths in each state, along with information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on gun ownership rates. From 1996 to 2010, there were 782 homicides of law enforcement personnel, 92 percent of them by gunfire. Responses to domestic disturbance calls resulted in 116 police deaths, 15 percent of the total.

Among the 180,000 officers in the eight states with the lowest rates of gun ownership, the homicide rate was 0.31 per 100,000. Among the 183,000 in the 23 states with the highest gun ownership rates, the rate was 0.95 per 100,000. The researchers controlled for race and ethnicity, poverty rates, educational level and other factors.

“We see that the same states that are the top gun-owning states are also the top states for officer homicide — for example, Montana, Alaska and Arkansas,” said the lead author, David I. Swedler, a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health. “And the lowest gun-owning states — Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey — are the states with the lowest officer homicide rates. Officers living in states with high gun ownership are more likely to be murdered on the job.”

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