In January, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, President Obama issued a "Presidential Memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control to research the causes and prevention of gun violence," along with 22 other "initiatives." That study, subcontracted out to the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, was completed in June and contained some surprises for the president.
There was one startling conclusion which, taken at face value, seemed to give the president what he was looking for. The study reported that "the U.S. rate of firearm-related homicide is higher than that of any other industrialized country: 19.5 times higher than the rates in other high-income countries. Graham Noble, "If one were to exclude figures for Illinois, California, New Jersey and Washington, DC, the homicide rate in the United States would be in line with any other country."
For example, the majority of gun-related deaths between 2000 and 2010 were due to suicide and not criminal violence:
Between the years 2000-2010 firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearms related violence in the United States.
In addition, defensive use of guns "is a common occurrence," according to the study:
Almost all national survey estimates indicate that defensive gun uses by victims are at least as common as offensive uses by criminals, with estimates of annual uses ranging from about 500,000 to more than 3 million per year, in the context of about 300,000 violent crimes involving firearms in 2008.
Accidental deaths due to firearms has continued to fall as well, with "the number of unintentional deaths due to firearm-related incidents account[ing] for less than 1 percent of all unintentional fatalities in 2010."
There was one startling conclusion which, taken at face value, seemed to give the president what he was looking for. The study reported that "the U.S. rate of firearm-related homicide is higher than that of any other industrialized country: 19.5 times high"er than the rates in other high-income countries." However, Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute, produced a map that compared gun violence rates in the major metropolitan areas of the country to rates of foreign countries. As Graham Noble of Guardian Express noted, "If one were to exclude figures for Illinois, California, New Jersey and Washington, DC, the homicide rate in the United States would be in line with any other country." These areas, of course, are noted for the most restrictive gun laws in the country, thus negating any opportunity for the president to celebrate the report's findings
