U.S. Top Country for Gun Ownership, Not Even in Top 10 for Firearm Deaths
On October 22 The Telegraph published a map showing the U.S. leads the world in private firearm ownership but does not even crack the Top 10 when it comes to firearm-related deaths.
According to the Telegraph, the countries with highest per-capita gun ownership are:
- USA – 112.6 guns per 100 residents
- Serbia – 75.6
- Yemen – 54.8
- Switzerland – 45.7
- Cyprus – 36.4
- Saudi Arabia – 35
- Iraq – 34.2
- Uruguay – 31.8
- Sweden – 31.6
- Norway – 31.3
Note–the Telegraph presents gun ownership as so expansive in the U.S. that guns actually outnumber people. Yet the U.S. does not appear on the list of the Top 10 countries for firearm-related deaths. Those countries are:
- Honduras – 67.18 per 100,000 residents per year
- Venezuela – 59.13
- Swaziland – 37.16
- Guatemala – 34.1
- Jamaica – 30.72
- El Salvador – 26.77
- Colombia – 25.94
- Brazil – 21.2
- Panama – 15.11
- Uruguay – 11.52
The map and the accompanying Telegraph article were drawn from the Small Arms Survey and the 2012 Congressional Research Service Report. As Breitbart News previously reported, the CRS report shows privately owned firearms jumped from 192 million in the U.S. in 1994 to 310 million in 2009. At the same time, the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” rate–which was 6.6 per 100,000 Americans in 1993–fell to 3.6 per 100,000 by 2000. Gun sales continued to surge and the “firearm-related murder and non-negligent homicide” rate fell to 3.2 in 2011.
Think about it–as gun ownership rose, the murder rate plummeted in the U.S. Couple that with the fact that only one of the Top 10 countries for gun ownership is also in the Top 10 for firearm-related deaths–Uruguay is number eight for gun ownership number 10 for gun deaths–and the point is clear: More guns correlate with less crime.
Ironically, the city of Chicago has one of the nations toughest gun laws, and so far in 2016 there have been over 3,500 shootings. This would tend to contradict President Obama’s remarks made back in October 2015.
We know that states with the most gun laws tend to have the fewest gun deaths. So the notion that gun laws don’t work, or just will make it harder for law-abiding citizens and criminals [to] still get their guns is not borne out by the evidence.
