But is that correct?

That's the question that's been in the back of my mind for quite some time, but it came to a bit of a head when Newsweek published this piece.

In a nation where firearm ownership is a deeply ingrained part of the culture, a new map sheds light on the most gun-loving states, showing intriguing patterns and regional differences.

Given its cultural importance, and its enshrinement in the U.S. Constitution, the right to bear arms is a perennial hot-button issue for Americans.

According to the Pew Research Center, "perhaps no topic divides voters more deeply than the role that firearms have in American life," and the matter gains particular importance during election cycles.

Drawing on data from Pew, Data Pandas compiled its ranking of states by the percentage of adult gun owners, seen here on a map created by Newsweek.

The map is interactive, so it's not really something we can repost and get the gravity of what I saw, but it was legitimately fascinating.

Since it's based on survey data, it may have some inaccuracies--some people saying they don't own guns when they do, for example, because they don't advertise their gun ownership to strangers--but there are some pronounced trends that are obvious.

For starters, let's look at the states with the most notable hostility toward gun ownership. Massachusetts, with just 14.7 percent of people owning firearms, is so pale in the color-code scheme it's hard to even see. New Jersey is right there with them with a similar percentage. New York has more gun owners, but only 19.9 percent, and California has 28.6.

Now, not all anti-gun states have low gun ownership. Oregon, for example, has 50.8 percent and Washington State boasts 42.1 percent.

Meanwhile, let's look at some pro-gun states.

Montana has 66.3 percent and Alaska has 64.5, which isn't overly shocking due to the extremely rural nature of those states. They're also fairly low-population states, so it doesn't take that many gun owners to make up a big percentage.

But Alabama isn't that low of a population state and they've got 55.5 percent of the adults owning guns.

So the tendency is for there to be low ownership in anti-gun states and higher gun ownership in pro-gun states.

In and of itself, this data doesn't actually prove anything. Correlation isn't causation and the correlation isn't perfect. What we see means, at least in my mind, one of two things...assuming it's not a combination of the two.

The first is that gun owners are less likely to support gun control and gun control-supporting candidates. That is probably accurate, at least to a point. No one who owns a gun likes to be treated as if they're the problem. They know their guns aren't being used for illicit purposes and they resent anyone pretending they are. It doesn't take much before candidates claiming otherwise find themselves in a tough spot.

As such, most gun control laws are going to be passed in states where most of the people aren't alienated by such rhetoric because they're not the ones being lumped in with the bad guys.

But the other is far more concerning, and I can't rule it out. Namely, that the gun laws are keeping law-abiding citizens from buying and owning firearms. 

Gun laws are sold to the public as a means to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, but they make it harder for regular citizens who have done nothing wrong in their lives to get a firearm. It creates hurdles that many such folks simply don't want to fool with, thus discouraging lawful gun ownership. That's a big problem.

The data doesn't say one way or another, but I tend to figure it's a bit of both, and it's all the more reason why we need to step up our efforts, particularly in anti-gun states, all while not falling asleep in pro-gun ones. Our rights matter, and not just because gun owners tend to become gun voters.