Why It Is Misleading to Compare Murder Rates in the US and Western Europe

American Thinker ^ | 04/07/2018 | Antonio Chaves

[SeekAndFind]

A 2016 article by the American Journal of Medicine claims that homicide rates in the U.S. are 7 times higher than an average of other “high income countries.”  This conclusion is based on a select list of OECD nations compiled in 2010.  The lowest income nation on the list is Hungary, where per capita GDP is $28,000 per year.  Turkey and Mexico did not make the cut because their per capita GDPs are respectively $25,000 and $19,000.  Latvia and Estonia are not on this list, presumably because Latvia joined the OECD in 2016 and Estonia joined in December of 2010.  Turkey, Estonia, and Latvia have murder rates comparable to those in the U.S.  Mexico exceeds the U.S. by about 4 times.  Most would agree that Mexico is not “high income” but the case for excluding these other three nations is not as clear cut.

If the list were to include all of Eastern Europe, Russian and Lithuania would surpass the U.S. in homicides per capita.  Only when the U.S. is compared with affluent Western nations that were never under the iron curtain does its murder rate far exceed all other in the sample.  The AJM attributes this grim statistic to high levels of gun ownership in the U.S., but the authors fail to point out that two of the safest nations in the world (Switzerland and Finland) rank 3^rd and 4^th in per capita gun ownership.

The U.S. has almost double the gun ownership rate of Finland and (according to a table in the AJM article) 12 times the gun homicide rate.  Does this mean there is a “critical mass” for gun ownership where the murder rate increases exponentially? 

[Thank You Rush]

“”I very highly doubt they include the last part of your post as part of their murder stats, which, incidentally, is the part of your post that is incorrect:
The United States 4.2 !!!!!!!!!!!!
ALL the countries (109) above America have 100% gun bans.””

Oh my goodness - you’re back? Hate to tell you this but you are 100% WRONG!!! The postscript is exactly what is written on the article all throughout the internet..

https://auntiebs.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/world-health-organization-the-latest-murder-statistics-for-the-world/

Never fear I’ll be checking your posts to make sure you have verified everything from now on that you post...

[Thank You Rush]

I’ll be waiting for an apology!!!!