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Homicide rates from other countries, whether by guns or by other means, don’t make the case for the United States being an unusually violent country. In fact, the U.S. is near the bottom of the list of countries in terms of homicides and homicides due to firearms.
The United Nations, office of Drugs and Crimes, compiles crime data from every country, as available. The most complete data on homicides due to firearms versus all homicides is from 2008. The rates listed below are per 100,000 population and are in descending order in terms of the homicide rate due to firearms.
Country 2008 homicide rate 2008 homicide rate due …………………………………………….due to firearms to all causes
Honduras 49.2 61.3
Jamaica 46.1 59.5
El Salvador 39.9 51.9
Guatemala 38.3 46.0
St. Kitts & Nevis 35.2 45.0
Trinidad & Tobago 32.7 41.1
Colombia 28.7 35.9
Belize 22.1 34.4
Dominican Republic 18.6 24.8
Panama 15.2 19.2
Ecuador 12.7 18.5
Mexico 4.6 12.7
Nicaragua 4.6 13.1
United States 3.6 5.4
Sierra Leone 2.3 14.9
Peru 1.8 11.7
Uganda 1.1 36.3
Grenada 1.0 13.5
Georgia 1.0 6.0
Democratic Rep. of Congo .8 21.7
Egypt .7 1.0
Taiwan .6 3.5
Liberia .4 10.1
Zambia .3 38.0
Mongolia .3 7.9
Germany .2 .9
The Mountain Democrat does not necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy
1036-FrankFebruary 01, 2013 - 9:17 am
These are facts, liberals hate facts, they get in the way of their emotional delusional thinking pattern where it is better to invent information for a purpose in order to punish the law abiding with a few hundred new vague laws that the criminals and mentally ill will ignore and no-one can understand instead of dealing with the criminals with firearms and mentally ill with firearms which are the problem. Yesterday the brilliant Cal liberals were proposing taxing firearms and ammo like cigarettes for new educational programs, wonder what their next brilliant idea will be.
Ken SteersFebruary 02, 2013 - 3:17 pm
I made the same point when the democrat socialist kept chiding that we aren't as safe a society as Germany. He later admitted he wasn't even a US citizen.
Paddy O'furnitureFebruary 02, 2013 - 3:37 pm
Wow. this article has been up for over 36 hours and not one lefty has commented. You're right Frank, they hate facts.
Dave RedmondFebruary 02, 2013 - 7:55 pm
One fact that was omitted from this article (probably just an oversight). Which country leads the world in mass murders by firearm? C'mon, guess.
Deborah SimpsonFebruary 03, 2013 - 2:42 am
Interesting choice of countries to compare us to. Next time, to have a factual conversation, you may want to use well, actual facts. It is so obvious these countries were cherry picked for their high murder rates. Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
RichardFebruary 03, 2013 - 8:27 am
So who’s right? With the Mountain Democrat confirmed as a right wing paper, and the right wing in general having a credibility problem. Who’s right? I think I'll go with the UCLA numbers: Based on a study of the homicide rates of wealthy nations in 2003, conducted by the UCLA School of Public Health. The report, published in 2010, uses data from the World Health Organization to compare gun-related homicide, gun-related suicide and unintentional and undetermined gun deaths for all ages and both sexes. Vital statistics from the U.S. were compared to those from 22 other high-income countries with populations over 1 million people that reported cause of mortality to WHO for 2003. Researchers relied on The World Bank’s definition of a high income nation, which included countries that had a gross national income per capita of $12,276 or more for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011. In addition to the U.S., the study included Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom (England and Wales), United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) and United Kingdom (Scotland). Researchers determined that the rate of homicides with guns in the U.S. was 4.1 per 100,000 people; the same rate combining the 22 other countries were 0.2 per 100,000 in 2003. The rate of homicides using guns in the U.S. was 19.5 times the rate of the other countries. Moran, rounding up, correctly repeated that factoid.
EvelynFebruary 03, 2013 - 8:35 am
"Confirmed" - Meaning, something like the boiling point of water = 100°C. That sort of "confirmation"?
Susie O.February 03, 2013 - 12:14 pm
There is a credibility problem with anything Dawn Hodson writes. She does not have any journalistic objectivity. She believes in, and writes about far-right tea party conspiracies. I would be just as upset about any subjective left-wing "journalist" as well in any newspaper. Her "stories" need to go in the letters to the editor section; I can't believe that the newspaper pays her to write!
robertdnollFebruary 03, 2013 - 12:55 pm
the list doesn't include china where the govt shoots it's citizens for organ transplants,they even go to their homes and do it in the back of a van