CNN makes false claim about firearm death rates and uses bogus data from George Soros backed Small Arms Survey

CNN makes the completely false claim that the US has “one of the world’s highest rates of death by firearms.”  Note most countries don’t report their firearm homicide rates, and there are many other problems that make the US’s rate look worse compared to other countries (please see here, that also provides links to data sources).  Admittedly the CNN claim is based on total firearm deaths and most of those are suicides in the US, but the firearm homicide rates are so massive in other parts of the world that they swamp firearm suicides in the US. (If you use murders (not homicides that include justifiable homicides), suicides account for about 70% of firearm deaths in the US.)  More information on the relationship between gun ownership and homicide rates (both total and by firearms) can be found here.

 

If you use the OECD definition of developed countries, the US isn’t close to being the highest even among developed countries.

The Small Arms Survey looks at the number of guns privately owned per capita.  The reason that the “private” part is important is that in many parts of the world governments technically own guns even though they are in the possession of private individuals.

For example, in 2007 you had a large percentage of the Swiss male population that had military issued weapons in their homes (all able bodied males between 18 and 42 and possibly up to age 65), but those weren’t counted in this total.  Israel is said to have had only 7 guns per 100 people, but while most people have guns in Israel, the guns are technically owned by the government.  People can be in possession of a gun for 50 years in Israel.  Is it the possession rate or the private ownership rate that is of interest here?  If you look at the gun possession rate rather than the “private” gun ownership rate, both Israel and Switzerland clearly have higher gun possession rates in 2007 than the US..

At the very least, CNN should have labeled these graphs as showing the number of privately owned guns, not guns possessed, per hundred people.  There probably also should be a warning label indicating that received financial support from George Soros’ Open Society Institute.

UPDATE:  Later in the day CNN corrected part of their post, that dealing with the claim that the US has “one of the world’s highest rates of death by firearms.”  CPRC had sent emails to the authors and posted our concerns.

UPDATE 2: Breitbart has a discussion on the CPRC calling CNN to account.

Moreover, Lott’s Crime Research Prevention Center (CRPC) points out that CNN’s total of U.S. gun deaths includes suicides, which makes the actual number of homicides appear “70%” higher than they really are.

CRPC reports:

CNN makes the completely false claim that the US has “one of the world’s highest rates of death by firearms.”  Note most countries don’t report their firearm homicide rates, and there are many other problems that make the US’s rate look worse compared to other countries…Admittedly the CNN claim is based on total firearm deaths and most of those are suicides in the US, but the firearm homicide rates are so massive in other parts of the world that they swamp firearm suicides in the US.

CRPC explains, “If you use murders (not homicides that include justifiable homicides), suicides account for about 70% of firearm deaths in the US.”

Bearing Arms wrote a piece on how the CPRC called out CNN on their false claims, and concluded their discussion by saying: “Well done, Dr. Lott. If we don’t hold their feet to the fire, who will?“