'Gun Violence In America Is Off the Chart'

In August 2012, Fareed Zakaria wrote a piece for Time magazine in which he asserted that “gun violence in America is off the chart compared with every other country on the planet. The gun homicide rate per capita in the U.S. is 30 times that of Britain and Australia.”

Because the arguments he made then are being parroted anew in the drive for gun control, his assertions cry out for examination in light of the facts. To start, why would he single out the “gun homicide” rate rather than the total homicide rate? I know a couple whose son was beaten on the back of the head with a tire iron. While his parents are bitter that neither offender was charged, I never heard them say, “Well, at least Tom was murdered with a blunt instrument rather than a gun.”

Unfortunately, Mr. Zakaria neglects to document the sources for his facts, if indeed they are facts. Though holding a PhD from Yale and serving as a trustee for that institution, he does not recognize plagiarism when he commits it — he issued an “unapologetic apology” for stealing much of his article and was suspended from publishing in Time for a month. Well, he did not call it stealing, merely a “terrible mistake … a serious lapse.” But he will be happy to talk to your Rotary Club — his fee is only $75,000.

Let’s look at homicide rates as reported in the 2011 Global Study on Homicide, conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The latest year with the most complete data is 2008, used here. The total homicide rate for the US was 4.1 times that of the UK and 4.5 times that for Australia. Still not good, but nowhere close to the “30 times” Mr. Zakaria laments.

The UN Global Study has data on 187 countries, ranging from a high of 61.3 per 100,000 in Honduras to 0 in Palau. Where was the United States? Number 99, with 5.4 homicides per 100,000. Over half the countries in the world had a homicide rate higher than ours.

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