The Real Data

John Hinderaker of Power Line links to a Chicago Tribune article by John Lott, Jr. Think tank president Lott debunks the claim by Obama and other Democrats that the U.S. is uniquely plagued with mass shootings.

Over the course of 18 years, from 1998 to 2015, our list contains 2,354 attacks and at least 4,880 shooters outside the United States and 53 attacks and 57 shooters within this country. By our count, the U.S. makes up 1.49 percent of the murders worldwide, 2.20 percent of the attacks, and less than 1.15 percent of the mass public shooters. All these are much less than America’s 4.6 percent share of the world population.

Of the 97 countries where we identified mass public shootings, the U.S. ranks 64th per capita in its rate of attacks and 65th in fatalities. Major European countries, such as Norway, Finland, France, Switzerland and Russia, all have at least 25 percent higher per capita murder rates from mass public shootings.

Democrats try to tell us we are alone in suffering these attacks, claiming it for their own selfish reasons. The claim simply isn’t true.