I talked to a Sherrif a while back about that. And the numbers in any database arent very trustworthy ither than the fbi.

Lots of departments count crimes as in "convictions" So if they get a lot of plea deals like they do in big cities. An armed robbery with a gun gets reduced to a criminal trespassing and the gun charges dropped from record.

The numbers are tweaked and redefined to fit agendas just like "the science" is. All they need to do is pick a state and start making calls and asking questions. Namely contact the website and ask where they got their data and what calculations were made to it for the article.