Obama Continues the Lie About Gun Violence in Other Countries

When President Obama announced his executive actions on guns from the East Room of the White House, he once again, repeated this lie:

"This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency."

That claim has already been debunked by PolitiFact.com, stating that it is "Mostly False".  The fact is that Norway, Sweden, and Finland all have "Mass Shooting" rates that are higher than the U.S.; relative to the size of their respective populations.

In terms of homicides, our neighbor to the south, Mexico, has a rate 4 times higher than the we do.  In fact, Central and South American countries, in general, all have excessive gun violence and homicide rates despite having lower per-capita gun ownership.  The United States ranks 18th.  This despite the fact that the we rank number one in gun ownership with a per-person rate of 112.6 guns per 100 persons.

This is a perfect example of the type of claims that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democrats use to try and push gun control measures in this country.

What we never hear from any of these people is that gun-related homicides in the U.S.  have fallen by 49% since peaking in 1993.  Non-fatal gun violence has fallen by nearly 75% over the same period.  Some of that can be attributed to the fact that gun ownership has tripled in this country since the 1990's from an estimated 270 million to 310 million.  Simply, a person with criminal intent is less likely to commit a crime if they think that a potential victim may be armed.

References:

Barack Obama's emotional evolution on gun control: http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/05/politics/obama-gun-control-evolution-executive-order/

Is Barack Obama correct that mass killings don't happen in other countries?: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/jun/22/barack-obama/barack-obama-correct-mass-killings-dont-happen-oth/

List of countries by firearm-related death rate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

Number of guns per capita by country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by_country

Gun Homicide Rate Down 49% Since 1993 Peak; Public Unaware: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/05/07/gun-homicide-rate-down-49-since-1993-peak-public-unaware/

Gun Violence Statistics 1993-2011: http://www.nij.gov/topics/crime/gun-violence/pages/welcome.aspx