Missouri Ranks Highest In Black Victims of Homicide

Missouri leads the nation in homicides of black victims for the second year in a row, with a rate seven times higher than the national average.

The Violence Policy Center released a study ranking Missouri first out of the 50 states in a list of black homicide victimization rates.

In Missouri, 34.72 per 100,000 black people are victims of homicide, according to the study.

Firearms, especially handguns, are overwhelmingly the weapons used in the homicides, according to the study.

Eighty-seven percent of black homicide victims were killed with guns in 2009, the year with the most recent data available.

Of the 239 black homicide victims in Missouri in 2009, 206 were male and 33 were female.

In St. Louis, 125 of the 143 homicides in 2009 were black victims, according to the Kansas City Star report.

State trailing Missouri according to the study were, in order: Michigan, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Indiana, Tennessee, Wisconsin, California and Nevada.