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To be actually honest about the discussion, you'd have to recognize that each of the countries named individually have 1 or 2 mass shootings each, while the USA had 133. So in each of these 3 countries, they had mass shootings that accounted for an unusually high count. One of these countries is also often touted for the low crime rate because of its high gun ownership rate.
I'm also not sure why Mexico was included in this list. It is not exactly on par with Switzerland, Finland, the UK, Germany, or the US. Nor is China, for that matter.
Norway's single mass shooter certainly skews their statistics. One terrorist killed 77 people, 67 by gunfire - mostly teenagers - with most of the shooting occurring at a camp on an island. 150 fled by swimming across the fjord.
Also note:
Quote:
By contrast, the second part of Obama’s claim -- that "it doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency" -- isn’t entirely off-base.
We compared mass shooting incidents across countries is to calculate the number of victims per capita -- that is, adjusted for the country’s total population size.
Calculating it this way shows the United States in the upper half of the list of 11 countries, ranking higher than Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Germany and Mexico.
Still, the U.S. doesn’t rank No. 1. At 0.15 mass shooting fatalities per 100,000 people, the U.S. had a lower rate than Norway (1.3 per 100,000), Finland (0.34 per 100,000) and Switzerland (1.7 per 100,000).
Norway's high ranking is due to a single incident in which the magnitude of the deaths was such that 1/4 of the population knew someone who was either killed or injured (including the Crown Princess's stepbrother, the first to be killed). Switzerland's high ranking is also due to a single incident, while Finland is due to two. With such small populations, it's hard to compare when one shooting can skew the data so much.
What is missing from this article is the NUMBER of mass shootings per capita. For instance, the US has almost 64 times the population of Norway, yet they had one mass shooting in the past 14 years while we had 133. When equalized for size of population, the only country that comes close to our rate of incidents is Finland.
I'm also not sure why Mexico was included in this list. It is not exactly on par with Switzerland, Finland, the UK, Germany, or the US. Nor is China, for that matter.
Norway's single mass shooter certainly skews their statistics. One terrorist killed 77 people, 67 by gunfire - mostly teenagers - with most of the shooting occurring at a camp on an island. 150 fled by swimming across the fjord.
Also note:
Norway's high ranking is due to a single incident in which the magnitude of the deaths was such that 1/4 of the population knew someone who was either killed or injured (including the Crown Princess's stepbrother, the first to be killed). Switzerland's high ranking is also due to a single incident, while Finland is due to two. With such small populations, it's hard to compare when one shooting can skew the data so much.
What is missing from this article is the NUMBER of mass shootings per capita. For instance, the US has almost 64 times the population of Norway, yet they had one mass shooting in the past 14 years while we had 133. When equalized for size of population, the only country that comes close to our rate of incidents is Finland.
Good points, I was also wondering why Mexico. Norway was actually 67 killed, the other deaths were are car bomb. Aside from 3 incidents the US is around 10 times worse than other civilized countries and the frequency seems to be increasing. Drawing a conclusion based on a few incidents in countries with a population of 5 M is not very rigorous.
Good points, I was also wondering why Mexico. Norway was actually 67 killed, the other deaths were are car bomb. Aside from 3 incidents the US is around 10 times worse than other civilized countries and the frequency seems to be increasing. Drawing a conclusion based on a few incidents in countries with a population of 5 M is not very rigorous.
I noted that 67 were killed by gunfire. 8 were killed by the car bomb. 2 more were killed fleeing the island - one falling off a cliff as they escaped and the other drowning while swimming across a frigid fjord on an unseasonably cool day.
So Obama is wrong. However, this doesn't go to say that gun homicides in the US aren't an issue that need to be addressed.
"Mass shootings per capita" is a really dumb comparison. Mass shootings are relatively infrequent events, so you need to look at the frequency with which they occur, not how many people on average got killed in them. Furthermore, the really telling statistic is the overall homicide and gun violence rate...tell me that USA is lower there? I'd be fascinated to know the answer to that (nint: I already know).
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