Tell me if I’m wrong but the way I understood this is they classified “avoidable” as any death over the death rate in the lowest state. So if Texas has 500 deaths and New York has 300, by their classification Texas would have 200 avoidable deaths.
If I’m reading this right, this is complete nonsense. One state having a lower death rate has no bearing on whether another state’s deaths were avoidable or not.

Please someone tell me I’m reading this wrong.

Edit: adding snip from the article...

“If countries could achieve the same firearm mortality rates nationally as in their lowest-burden states, 1 777 800 firearm deaths at all ages and in both sexes could be avoided, including 1 028 000 deaths in men aged 15–34 years.”