Susan North
My friend Bill just keeps sending me great emails – here is something from the World Health Organization which I hope another friend (who was contemplating Honduras) will heed.
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/homicide.html
I found it a little tricky to use (but then I’m not a big fan of Excel) so to find it summarized, check the link below. I do not know how they found some of the countries, what I did verifiy is that it is pretty darn close. We don’t have a gun problem in the USA – we have a mental illness problem.
http://badgerlakeobserver.blogspot.com/2013/01/world-health-organization-murder.html
From the World Health Organization
The latest Murder Statistics for the world:
Murders per 100,000 citizens
Honduras 91.6
El Salvador 69.2
Cote d'lvoire 56.9
Jamaica 52.2
Venezuela 45.1
Belize 41.4
US Virgin Islands 39.2
Guatemala 38.5
Saint Kits and Nevis 38.2
Zambia 38.0
Uganda 36.3
Malawi 36.0
Lesotho 35.2
Trinidad and Tobago 35.2
Colombia 33.4
South Africa 31.8
Congo 30.8
Central African Republic 29.3
Bahamas 27.4
Puerto Rico 26.2
Saint Lucia 25.2
Dominican Republic 25.0
Tanzania 24.5
Sudan 24.2
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 22.9
Ethiopia 22.5
Guinea 22.5
Dominica 22.1
Burundi 21.7
Democratic Republic of the Congo 21.7
Panama 21.6
Brazil 21.0
Equatorial Guinea 20.7
Guinea-Bissau 20.2
Kenya 20.1
Kyrgyzstan 20.1
Cameroon 19.7
Montserrat 19.7
Greenland 19.2
Angola 19.0
Guyana 18.6
Burkina Faso 18.0
Eritrea 17.8
Namibia 17.2
Rwanda 17.1
Mexico 16.9
Chad 15.8
Ghana 15.7
Ecuador 15.2
North Korea 15.2
Benin 15.1
Sierra Leone 14.9
Mauritania 14.7
Botswana 14.5
Zimbabwe 14.3
Gabon 13.8
Nicaragua 13.6
French Guiana 13.3
Papua New Guinea 13.0
Swaziland 12.9
Bermuda 12.3
Comoros 12.2
Nigeria 12.2
Cape Verde 11.6
Grenada 11.5
Paraguay 11.5
Barbados 11.3
Togo 10.9
Gambia 10.8
Peru 10.8
Myanmar 10.2
Russia 10.2
Liberia 10.1
Costa Rica 10.0
Nauru 9.8
Bolivia 8.9
Mozambique 8.8
Kazakhstan 8.8
Senegal 8.7
Turks and Caicos Islands 8.7
Mongolia 8.7
British Virgin Islands 8.6
Cayman Islands 8.4
Seychelles 8.3
Madagascar 8.1
Indonesia 8.1
Mali 8.0
Pakistan 7.8
Moldova 7.5
Kiribati 7.3
Guadeloupe 7.0
Haiti 6.9
Timor-Leste 6.9
Anguilla 6.8
Antigua and Barbuda 6.8
Lithuania 6.6
Uruguay 5.9
Philippines 5.4
Ukraine 5.2
Estonia 5.2
Cuba 5.0
Belarus 4.9
Thailand 4.8
Suriname 4.6
Laos 4.6
Georgia 4.3
Martinique 4.2
ALL the countries above have 100% gun bans
And - the United States is 4.2, where only select cities, like Chicago (that has strict gun ownership bans), have the highest violent crime rates in the country.
Add one more significant fact to this data and it puts the U.S.'s problem in a sharper context. in any year between 75%-80% of gun deaths are committed by African Americans, 11%-18% by Hispanics and about 6%-8% by whites. The problem in this country is gangs and not guns. The police in every city that has gangs know who every gang member is, know where they live and hang out and know with some certainty which crimes are committed by which gangs. The reasons we don't do something is that: A)the entire process around bring gang members to justice is quite dangerous so more effort is put into traffic convictions which bring money into the system. B) The legal system will crucify you if you are even just accused of child abuse or domestic violence (not guilty but merely accused) but if you are a gang member selling drugs or shooting competitors the DA won't touch the case without a mountain of evidence. So the police don't want to arrest them and the DA doesn't want to convict them so we have given over the cities to gangs who shoot guilty and innocent alike with impunity.
Posted by: GoneWithTheWind | February 27, 2013 at 09:34 AM
Thank you so much. I hope your friend listens. This is very interesting - have to go now, today is the day to clean my gun
Posted by: Susan Benton | February 27, 2013 at 11:31 AM