In a recent column (08-30-15), Tom Lucente asserts that the “United States doesn’t have a gun problem.” Comparing US and UK crime statistics, he writes: “Great Britain, which has very few guns, has more violent crime per capita than the United States.” But, he writes, “That doesn’t stop [US] leftists…from calling for stricter victim disarmament laws in order to ‘stop the gun violence.’” But Lucente’s not telling us the whole story about “violent crime” in Great Britain. There, “violent crime,” is a broader classification, including many more offenses than we do here in the US.
The FBI counts only four crimes – murder/negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault – as “violent.” In addition to these offenses, the UK counts as “violent” the following: burglary, all sexual crimes, including sexual touching and soliciting prostitutes, all forms of domestic violence, including emotional and financial abuse, and other crimes such as vehicle and bicycle theft, stalking, purse-snatching, and others.
Counting all reports of these crimes as “violent,” it is no surprise that the UK’s rate of violent crime per capita is higher than ours, but that’s because we’re comparing, as they say, apples and oranges. Compare all gun-related death rates (homicide, suicide and accidental deaths) and it’s a different story: 0.26 per 100,000 in the UK; 10.64 per 100,000 in the US. I’d say the US has a gun problem.
— David S. Adams, Lima
