A study of three years worth of federal data finds African-Americans in Minnesota are 12 times more likely than white residents to be the victims of homicides committed with firearms.

MPR looked at numbers provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They report that Minnesota's racial disparity is greater than the national 10 to 1 ratio.

Using a gun to commit suicide, on the other hand, was more common among white residents.

Gun ownership is also more common among white residents. But some African-Americans tell MPR illegal guns are too prevalent in the black community.

The president of the group MAD DADS, VJ Smith, says "Those guns come in from the streets and they come in from the mob .... Those guns get used to rob people. Those guns get used because we have so much rage and anger in our community, that the first thing we're willing to do is to shoot somebody."

MPR's analysis found that gun homicides among African-Americans occurred at the rate of 7.3 per 100,000 residents. For whites the rate was 0.6.

A study released by the Violence Policy Center last year looked at FBI data from 2010. Among African-Americans, it put Minnesota's rate at 11.7 per 100,000 people, which ranked 29th among the states.

Minnesota's overall homicide rate is lower than most states. The website StateMaster.com, using state data compiled from various sources, put Minnesota 44th among the 50 states and Washington D.C. in firearm homicides per capita.