Numbers tell stories. Based on statistics from 2010, "24/7 Wall St." ranked Missouri eighth for overall gun violence. Missouri had 14 gun injury deaths per each 100,000 people — only 11 states had a higher rate. The story these numbers tell isn't surprising. Almost all of these states are poor, Southern or Western and deep red or getting redder. Missouri isn't quite as poor or — maybe — as red as some, but given the inclinations of the Republicans who run our legislature, we'll soon be charter members of the hard-scrabble, hand-to-mouth, red-state contingent.