On February 28th, in response to human rights reports “issued by the U.S. State Department” on February 27th, China released a report describing the U.S. as a country where “gun violence is rampant.”
China focused on the number of guns privately held in the U.S.–“about 300 million”–and criticized the U.S. government for “[failing] to take effective measures to control guns.” However, they cited numbers from 2013 when those numbers benefited their thesis and numbers from 2012 when those benefited the thesis even more.
According to Sina.com, the report used 2013 crime numbers to show “firearms were used in 69.3 percent of [U.S.] murders, 41 percent of robberies, and 21.8 percent of aggravated assaults.” If they had juxtaposed 2013 with 2012, they would have realized what Breitbart News reported on February 19th–that as gun ownership rose exponentially in the first half of 2013, FBI crime statistics demonstrate violent crime dropped drastically.
The Chinese also cited Attorney General Eric Holder “as saying the average number of mass shooting incidents has tripled in recent years.” But here again, professors who study “mass shootings” for a living say this simply is not so.
For example, Northeastern University Criminologist James Alan Fox said, “Many times more youngsters are killed annually in bicycle accidents” than in “mass shootings.” And on February 1st, Breitbart News reported a study by AG Holder’s own DOJ showing firearm-related murders are down 39 percent since 1993, and violent crime is down 70 percent.
Far from criticizing U.S. gun ownership and/or the absence of more stringent gun control laws, the Chinese have indicated that the U.S. is living proof of the maxim “More guns, less crime.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.