The U.S has the seventh highest firearms-related death rate in the world. (Gun talk #1)

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by Rod Williams, July 9, 2021- There has been a spike in crime in Nashville and all across America in the last year, especially murders. Most of these murders are committed by people with guns.  This follows a decades-long decrease in violent crime.  While we lament the spike in murders and it gets reported in the news, in any other advanced county this would be seen as a major crisis.  For us, we are so accustomed to murder that it has become like background noise.  We are no more concerned about someone being shot than we are someone dying in a car accident.  It is just what happens. 

The U. S. has the seventh highest firearms-related death rate in the world. Just look at who has a more deaths from guns, than we do:  Columbia, Brazil, Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela, and Honduras. 

We are in a poor neighborhood.  These are for the most part what President Trump indelicately referred to as "shithole countries."  They are third-world counties, to say the least.  Columbia is a battleground between different drug cartels. El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are lawless nations where violent gangs prey on people and fight each other for turf, and the governments are corrupt or ineffective. Venezuela used to be a more desirable place but since a socialist government came to power the country has experienced massive inflation and violation of human rights and the people have had to resort to eating pets and zoo animals to survive.  Venezuela is a failed state. Think about that. These are the countries that have a higher death rate by guns per 100,000 people than we do.

In most comparisons between nations, we are judged against the other G7 nations.  The G7 are the richest and most powerful, "first world" counties. G-7 countries consist of the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Canada, and Japan. How do we compare in death by gun violence per 100,000?

U.S. -  12.21

U.K. -  .23

France - 2.83

Germany - .99

Italy -  1.31

Canada - 2.05

Japan - .06

Does anyone see our gun-related death rate as a problem?  Do we just accept that that is the way it is? Can anything be done? In many ways, Canada and the US are comparable. Why do we have a gun-related death rate 6 times that of Canada?  We have death by gun violence 53 times that of the UK.  Why?  Why is America so much more violent than most of the rest of the world?  

I will continue to think about this issue and share my thoughts.  Stay tuned for part 2. Comments are welcome. 

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