You may recall that I discussed population density in my post on the Newtown shooting a couple weeks ago. Generally, my point was that I believe urban areas cultivate more rational, balanced people, while the relative seclusion of the suburbs allows for people like Adam Lanza to grow up unchecked.
I came across an excellent article wherein Dave Troy analyzed the 2012 electorate according to population density, both nationally (as seen in the graph above) and by red and blue states separately. Sure enough, the real key factor in determining whether a voter is liberal or conservative isn't what state he lives in, but how dense his neighborhood is. While he found that there simply weren't that many dense urban areas in red states to start with, the few that do exist (Dallas, for example) vote almost as heavily Democratic as equivalent cities in blue states.
There's more to unpack in his data (and he promises to revisit the topic in the future, as do I) but rather than summarize the whole thing here, I'll simply point you to the link below and let Dave explain for himself.
You may be thinking, well, maybe population density can be linked to voting patterns, but what does that have to do with mass shootings? I'll just let you mull that one over yourselves.
Further Reading
The Real Republican Adversary? Population Density
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