The continuance of gun violence in America is a sad reality that we way up to again and again. What to do about it is a very complex issue that has no easy answers.
There have been a series of statistics that have gone throughout the internet that show the United States as the highest rate of gun violence.
This rate is 2.9 homicides by gun per 100,000.
You can find the stats in this Vox article. It is listed as 29.7 gun murders per million. It is chilling to think that we top the list in gun violence. But then something didn't make sense. I started thinking of South Africa and Colombia. The Latin American and African countries I have been to and seen that violence . . . where were they on that chart?
When you track violence with or without guns, you get a much different picture. According to the United Nations and World Health Organization Global Status Report on Violence Protection in 2014 (see here for that link) - the U.S. doesn't even crack the top 20.
Here is the breakdown:
20. Zimbabwe - 15 murders per 100,000 - 33% gun related.
19. Iraq - 18.6 murders per 100,000 - 45% gun related.
18. Panama - 19 murders per 100,000 - 80% gun related.
17. Swaziland - 19.6 murders per 100,000 - 56% gun related.
16. Namibia - 19.7 murders per 100,000 - 47% gun related.
15. Guyana - 20 murders per 100,000 - 49% gun related.
14. Mexico - 22 murders per 100,000 - 73% gun related.
13. Dom. Rep.- 25.4 murders per 100,000 - 64% gun related.
12. Haiti - 26.6 murders per 100,000 - 36% gun related.
11. Bahamas - 32 murders per 100,000 - 75% gun related.
10. Trinidad & Tobago - 35 murders per 100,000 - 77% gun related.
9. South Africa - 35.7murders per 100,000 - 54% gun related.
8. Lesotho - 37.5 murders per 100,000 - 50% gun related.
7. Guatemala - 39.9 murders per 100,000 - 86% gun related
6. El Salvador - 40 murders per 100,000 - 77% gun related.
5. Colombia - 44 murders per 100,000 - 80% gun related.
4. Belize - 44.7 murders per 100,000 - 69% gun related.
3. Jamaica - 45 murders per 100,000 - 70% gun related.
2. Venezuela - 57.6 murders per 100,000 - 90% gun related.
1. Honduras - 104 murders per 100,000 - 84% gun related.
I really don't know what this means for us as a nation or as the human race in general. I am not sure how he Vox article can justify its numbers if Honduras has over 1,000 murders per 1,000,000 and 84% of them are gun related. That is 840 per million or 8.4 per 100,000 murders involving a gun. That figure far eclipses the United States.
I think the qualifying difference is developed countries versus undeveloped countries. But really, does it matter what level of economic achievement is reached to classify it as a violent or non-violent entity? Can we comfort ourselves by noting that we are separated by way of life?
Far from comforting . . .
What it continues to show me is that we have to have a change of heart as a people - whether we use guns or not, until the heart is changed we will continue to murder each other. And God is in the business of life change . . . we just have to be willing participants.
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