…“With respect to Planned Parenthood, obviously, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted. … I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings: This just doesn’t happen in other countries.” –Obama, news conference at COP21 climate conference in Paris, Dec. 1, 2015
“We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.” –Obama, statement on shootings at Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Ore., Oct.
CPRC original research, International Comparisons, mass public shootings
Original post: Every place that has banned guns (either all guns or all handguns) has seen murder rates go up. You cannot point to one place where murder rates have fallen, whether it’s Chicago or D.C. or even island nations such as England, Jamaica, or Ireland.
For an example of homicide rates before and after a ban, take the case of the handgun ban in England and Wales in January 1997 (source here see Table 1.01 and the column marked “Offences currently recorded as homicide per million population,” UPDATED numbers available here). …
CPRC original research, gun bans, gun free zones, International Comparisons, More Guns Less Crime
One of the big problems with comparing crime rates across countries is that there are big differences in what constitutes a crime and even whether people report crimes to police. If people don’t think that the police in a country will be able to solve the crime, it reduces their incentive to report the crime to police.…
Update Post: For our latest work comparing mass public shootings across countries, please click here.
For those interested, Snopes.com has given this research below a “mixed” rating. For a discussion of Snopes.com’s claims and our response see here.
Updated January 7, 2016: 1) In his address to the nation after the Planned Parenthood attack, Obama claimed: “I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings: This just doesn’t happen in other countries.”
Senator Harry Reid made a similar statement on June 23rd: “The United States is the only advanced country where this type of mass violence occurs. …
CPRC original research, International Comparisons, mass public killings non-shootings, mass public shootings
UPDATE: The audio of John Lott’s testimony is available here. The graphs presented to the committee are available in the link below providing the CPRC testimony. It was an honor for the CPRC to be invited to address the Australian Senate on this important topic.
Original Post: A notice of the public hearing before the Australian Senate later today (5:30 PM EDT US) is available here. …
John Lott had a discussion about the Pennsylvania attack on Coast to Coast AM (April 10, 2014 from 1:08 to 1:11 AM).
Franklin Regional High School near Pittsburgh was the horrific scene on Wednesday with “at least 24” injured, including 5 critically wounded. The carnage, which was done in about five minutes, could have been worse.…
International Comparisons, knife attacks, mass public killings non-shootings, media appearance
Charles Blow in the New York Times last year made the very common argument: “America has the highest gun homicide rate, the highest number of guns per capita . . . .” In another story, the New York Times quotes researcher David Hemenway as claiming: “Generally, if you live in a civilized society, more guns mean more death.” CNN’s Piers Morgan believes: “America has the worst incidents of gun murders of any of what they call the civilized world.” Bloomberg’s Businessweek also made similar claims this spring. …
CPRC original research, International Comparisons, More Guns Less Crime
