Data source: United Nations (Max Fisher — The Washington Post)
The
Sandy Hook Elementary shooting that killed 27, including 20 children, is already generating the same conversation that every mass shooting in America generates: Why are there so many shootings?
One piece of this puzzle is the national rate of firearm-related murders, which is charted above. The United States has by far the highest per capita rate of all developed countries. According to data
compiled by the United Nations, the United States has four times as many gun-related homicides per capita as do Turkey and Switzerland, which are tied for third. The U.S. gun murder rate is
about 20 times the average for all other countries on this chart. That means that Americans are 20 times as likely to be killed by a gun than is someone from another developed country.
The above chart measures data for the nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes all Western countries plus Turkey, Israel, Chile, Japan, and South Korea. I did not include Mexico, which has about triple the U.S. rate due in large part to the ongoing drug war.
The rate in several developing countries, particularly in Latin America, is significantly higher. Honduras, which has been called the murder capital of the world, has an average firearm murder rate that’s about 20 times America’s. But make no mistake: For a rich, developed country, the U.S. gun-related homicide rate is very, very high.
Obama unveils gun-control proposals
President Obama on Wednesday formally proposed the most expansive gun-control policies in generations and initiated 23 separate executive actions aimed at curbing what he called “the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”
While no legislation can prevent every tragedy, he said in announcing the proposals, “if there is even one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, then we’ve got an obligation to try.”
Obama called on Congress to swiftly pass legislation to ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines for civilian use and to require universal background checks for all gun buyers. His proposals include mental health and school safety measures, as well as a tough new crackdown on gun trafficking.
Obama
spoke in a White House ceremony to formally unveil the proposals and to sign executive orders and paperwork initiating immediate administrative actions, including steps to strengthen the existing background-check system, promote research on gun violence and provide training in dealing with “active shooter situations.”
Taken together, the gun-control proposals rank among Obama’s most ambitious legislative projects, along with his fiscal stimulus package, his health-care law and Wall Street regulations — all achieved when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress. Administration officials said Wednesday that the proposals do not represent specific legislation. But they said that in the coming weeks, the White House would be working with
members of a divided Congress to develop bills to implement as much of the package as possible.
Speaking before Obama, Vice President Biden, who headed a presidential task force that recommended Wednesday’s proposals, said “we have a moral obligation” to reduce the chances that tragedies such as last month’s massacre in an elementary school in Connecticut could happen again.
“I have no illusions about what we’re up against,” Biden said. But he added: “The world has changed, and it’s demanding action.”
Initial reaction to the proposals broke down along predictably partisan lines, with Democrats generally expressing support and Republicans adopting a tepid wait-and-see approach, if not voicing outright hostility.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), said House committees of jurisdiction would review the president’s recommendations. “And if the Senate passes a bill, we will also take a look at that,” he said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said
his panel would begin examining gun-control measures in two weeks. “In our hearings, we will ensure an open forum for a constructive discussion about how we can better protect our communities from mass shootings, while respecting the fundamental right to bear arms recognized by the Supreme Court,” he said in a statement.
In an emotional ceremony one month and two days after the shooting that killed 20 small children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Obama was flanked by children who wrote him letters in the days after the massacre, pleading with him to do something to curb gun violence.
“This is our first task as a society,” he said, “keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged, and their voices should compel us to change.”
In the month since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, Obama said, “more than 900 of our fellow Americans have reportedly died at the end of a gun... And every day we wait the number will keep growing.”
He vowed that “in the days ahead, I intend to use whatever weight this office holds” to make his proposals a reality.
Administration officials said Obama’s agenda is comprehensive and is designed to curb not only mass shootings with semiautomatic weapons but the thousands of deaths from regular handguns that abound in America’s cities.
One of the administration’s top priorities is strengthening background checks by closing loopholes in existing law. Obama’s plan also includes reinstating and strengthening the assault weapons ban, restoring a 10-round limit on ammunition magazines, getting rid of armor-piercing bullets, ending a freeze on research into gun violence and providing additional tools to prevent and prosecute gun crime. It calls on Congress to pass a $4 billion proposal to help communities keep 15,000 police officers on the streets, as well as new gun trafficking legislation that would “impose serious penalties on those who help get guns into the hands of criminals,” according to the
White House fact sheet.
The plan also aims to make schools safer, giving communities the opportunity to hire up to 1,000 school resource officers and school counselors.
Among the
steps Obama is taking by executive action is the nomination of a new director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF): Todd Jones, currently the agency’s acting director.
As important as his 23 executive actions are, “they are in no way a substitute for action from members of Congress,” Obama said. “To make a real and lasting difference, Congress, too, must act, and Congress must act soon.”
In calling for congressional restoration of the assault weapons ban and a 10-round limit for ammunition clips, Obama cited last year’s shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., in which a gunman armed with an assault rifle shot 70 people, 12 of them fatally, in a matter of minutes.
“Weapons designed for the theater of war have no place in a movie theater,” Obama said. He noted that former president Ronald Reagan, “one of the staunchest defenders of the Second Amendment,” wrote to Congress in 1994 to urge support for the assault weapons ban.
“There will be pundits and politicians and special interest lobbyists publicly warning of a tyrannical all-out assault on liberty, not because that’s true, but because they want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves,” he predicted. “And behind the scenes, they’ll do everything they can to block any common-sense reform and make sure nothing changes whatsoever.”
Obama added: “The only way we will be able to change is if their audience, their constituents, their membership says this time must be different, that this time we must do something to protect our communities and our kids. I will put everything I’ve got into this ... but I tell you, the only way we can change is if the American people demand it.”
He urged Americans to put pressure on their members of Congress and “get them on record” on whether they support universal background checks on gun buyers and renewal of the bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“And if they say no, ask them why not,” Obama said. “Ask them what’s more important: Doing whatever it takes to get an A grade from the gun lobby that funds their campaigns, or giving parents some piece of mind when they drop their child off to first grade?”
In a noncommittal statement after Obama’s speech, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) thanked the president’s task force “for its thoughtful recommendations” and pledged that the Senate would “consider legislation that addresses gun violence and other aspects of violence in our society early this year.” Reid has predicted that Obama’s most ambitious proposal — an outright ban on assault weapons — has almost no chance of passing the Republican-led House.
Senate Democratic aides said the Senate is more likely to pass individual elements of Obama’s plan and other gun-related legislation rather than attempt to pass a comprehensive bill, gambling that individual up or down votes on elements of the plan would be easier to pass than one large bill.
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) perhaps summed it up best in a statement Wednesday, noting that the push for universal background checks “is at the sweet spot” of effective efforts to curb gun crime. “We’re glad the President put such emphasis on it, and we look forward to working with him on this and other proposals to make our nation safer from the scourge of gun violence,” Schumer said.
But Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.), who has threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings against Obama over his gun-control proposals, condemned what he described as Obama’s “anti-gun sneak attack” and promised a legislative battle to protect “the God-given right to keep and bear arms.”
Another staunch conservative, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), said: “The Second Amendment is non-negotiable. Taking away the rights and abilities of law-abiding citizens to defend themselves is yet another display of the Obama administration’s consolidation of power.”
Among the executive actions Obama announced Wednesday were presidential memorandums requiring federal agencies to make relevant data available to the background-check system, ordering federal law enforcement to trace guns recovered in criminal investigations and directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to research the causes and prevention of gun violence.
The list also included a statement clarifying that the Affordable Care Act, his signature health-care initiative, “does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes.” Many administration officials and public health advocates had not known about the provision in question until
The Post reported last month that it had been quietly inserted in the closing days of debate at the behest of the NRA.
Obama said further that the administration would provide law enforcement, first responders and school officials with “proper training for active shooter situations.”
At an annual trade show in Las Vegas, the National Rifle Association on Wednesday cast its opposition to Obama’s plans as “the fight of the century.”
“I warned you this day was coming, and now it’s here,” Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s fiery executive vice president, wrote in a fund-raising letter circulated at the 35th annual Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show and Conference, known as the SHOT show. “It’s not about protecting your children. It’s not about stopping crime. It’s about banning your guns ... PERIOD!”
The NRA issued the letter a day after posting online a provocative video ad that labeled Obama an “elitist hypocrite” for letting armed guards protect his own school-aged children while expressing skepticism about an NRA proposal to put armed security in schools.
The White House on Wednesday blasted the video. “Most Americans agree that a president’s children should not be used as pawns in a political fight,” press secretary Jay Carney said. “But to go so far as to make the safety of the president’s children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly.”
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told The Washington Post that the ad was not directed at Malia and Sasha Obama.
Strong support for Obama’s school safety initiatives came Wednesday from the nation’s two main teachers unions, representing about 4.5 million educators and school personnel.
Leaders at both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers backed Obama’s proposal to give $150 million to communities to help them hire 1,000 new school resource officers, as well as psychologists, counselors and social workers in the country’s 100,000 public schools.
Sari Horwitz in Las Vegas and Scott Wilson, Ed O’Keefe and Lyndsey Layton in Washington contributed to this report.
