During his highly-politicized post Umpqua shooting address to the nation, the President challenged the media to forward his gun control agenda. “I would ask news organizations — because I won’t put these facts forward — have news organizations tally up the number of Americans who’ve been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who’ve been killed by gun violence, and post those side-by-side on your news reports. This won’t be information coming from me; it will be coming from you.” In an article entitled Number of Americans Killed by Gun Violence Vs. Terrorism Shows Stark Contrast, NBC (amongst others) answered the call . . .

Well, here are the numbers, and they’re pretty stark:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 153,144 people were killed by homicide in which firearms were used between 2001 and 2013, the last year that data are available (that number excludes deaths by “legal intervention”).

The Global Terrorism Database — which uses a criteria to determine terrorist attacks but also includes acts of violence that are more ambiguous in goal — estimates that 3,046 people in the U.S. died in terrorist or possible terrorist attacks between 2001 and 2014.

The top number doesn’t even include suicides and legal police killings (which boost the number to 394,912). Still, just counting homicides alone, 11,780 Americans were killed by guns a year on average, in that time period, while 219 on average were per year killed by terrorism — although of course the 9/11 attacks are the bulk of the deaths.

Vox.com actually went ahead and made the presidentially-requested info into a chart (though not “side-by-side”).

(courtesy vox.com)

 

Interestingly, both lines are relatively flat. Huh. Anyway, the whole exercise is a false paradigm. There is no correlation between “gun violence” and “terrorist attacks,” especially as a relatively small percentage of recent terrorist attacks involved firearms.

The President chose the comparison purely to bypass rational thought and appeal to Americans’ emotions. He could have compared death by “gun violence” to any mortality stat. As TTAG reader UZ points out, “According to the CDC, over 850k Americans are killed every year in the U.S. from abortions. Why didn’t Obama ask the press to run that statistic instead?” Or obesity-related deaths or medical malpractice-related fatalities.

Again, the stat challenge was designed to shock and obfuscate rather than inform. The mainstream media also failed by not challenging the President’s spin regarding the “gun violence” vs. “terrorism” comparo.

We spend over a trillion dollars, and pass countless laws, and devote entire agencies to preventing terrorist attacks on our soil, and rightfully so. And yet, we have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths. How can that be?

The President is intimating that America doesn’t spend enough money or legislative effort fighting “gun violence.” Au contraire. This country spends billions maybe even trillions of dollars on local, state and tribal police (some 1.1m sworn officers) and the rest of our judicial system. The ATF, FBI and the Justice Department are multi-billion dollar federal agencies also dedicated to fighting violent crime. And we have plenty of gun laws.

As for Congress blocking federally-funded data collection on reducing gun deaths, I guess the CIC and his mainstream media camp followers forgot that he signed an Executive Order in 2012 lifting the ban on firearms research that “advocates or promotes gun control” by the CDC in 2012. The CDC has done nothing, waiting for “dedicated funding” (God forbid they should use some of their existing budget to do the research).

Besides, what research needs doing, exactly? The best way to prevent “gun violence”: lock-up violent criminals and dangerously mentally ill individuals. For some reason, cities with high firearms-related crime rates (e.g. Chicago) continue to perpetuate a “revolving door” justice system. Oh, and “allowing” law-abiding Americans to arm themselves in their own defense, and defense of other innocent life.

The mainstream media is, by and large, the President’s willing lap dog, and he knows it. Thankfully, Americans have alternate sources to consider the truth about guns.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

67 COMMENTS

  1. I’m not sure where they are getting these numbers, as they seem highly inflated, but If real I think I’d more concerned with the 200K+ “legal police killings”. Also, are we excluding the death the US Gov has inflicted with its ongoing drone-based terror campaign?

  2. How many die each year from tobacco? Over 400K How come Obamas not visibly upset about that number? How many die each year from PREVENTABLE medical mistakes? Some estimates put it at over 400K also. How come Obamas not visibly upset about that number?
    http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/deaths-by-medical-mistakes-hit-records
    or
    http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/09/20/224507654/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-u-s-hospitals

    Fact is gun deaths from mass shootings in the USA is actually a small number compared to the actual leading and preventable causes.

  3. Does the Obama administration realize our military was involved in two wars on terrorism as well as countless special forces missions? Why are those numbers not counted? Also, why would terrorists come here when they have to fight for their own bases at home? Did Obama forget about the hundreds of billions of dollars we spent, or is he just so wrapped up in his persona as the peacemaker he is not able to remember the past decade?

    Beyond that, this is comparing apples to oranges. Why don’t we compare death stats of Chicago gangs with death stats of FSA and IS fighters? That’s apples to apples. Misdirection, lies, and stats; you know the quote by now.

    • Hey Barry the retard , if you manage to disarm the citizens you can increase the number of terrorist attacks by 1000 , the main reason we aren’t getting attacked by terrorist is because we’re freaking armed to the teeth and will quickly send those towel heads to Mohammed , in most states . Come here to WV and start shooting in any mall and you’ll be prone in minutes by multiple responses , all at once . We carry open and concealed often right past the sign on the door .

      • The main reason why we aren’t getting terrorist attacks is that terrorists are actually kinda busy elsewhere, and also because they aren’t all that pervasive and powerful. Do you really think it’s hard to go shoot up a mall somewhere in NYC or LA? Or even repeat what McVeigh did?

        • Please note I invited the mohametards to WV and to try and shoot up our malls here .
          To answer your question regarding NYC or LA , probably would be an easier target or lets just say a less risky exercise because you would have to wait for LE to arrive on scene and then for them to assess the situation before any bad guys could be eliminated as in any other ‘ gun free zone ‘ across our country .
          Here in hillbilly land , we could and would return fire .

  4. BDub kind of beat me to it, but how about a tally of people killed by our standing civilian army vs killed in acts of terrorism not sanctioned by our own government?

  5. I wish someone on the gun rights side in the media would point out the nonsense about how the states with more gun control have lower gun deaths. The statistic that counts is the gun murder rate, not the gun death rate (which includes self defense shootings, suicides, and accidents). As it is, the states with more gun control have higher gun murder rates. I wish someone would call President Obama out on that.

  6. When is the GUN SALESMAN of the CENTURY going to stop annoying us? From Barry’s afternoon diatribe it pretty much sounded like he’s given up. “Elect people to defy the gun lobby”. Methinks Soetoro will expend more energy on destroying America via “climate change” socialism. His(her?) response to Putin is pathetic. Never mind not leaving 10000 in Iraq could have prevented all this(before anyone weighs in -when you conquer a country you dictate to them-not vice versa…I hope we don’t get into a shootin’ war when Russians knock a few of our guys out of the sky. I wonder what kinda’ run on guns THIS will cause?

  7. “The mainstream media is, by and large, the President’s willing lap dog” The performance of the media with regard to BHO has been a shocking disgrace. Their partisanship and bias in BHO’s favor has been so blatant and absolute that all news organizations should be deeply ashamed of their performance. I hope someday that journalists will look back at this era and finally recognize and own up to their utter failure of objectivity.

  8. Amazingly, the Outdoor Channel rebroadcast an episode of “Best Defense” just last Wednesday featuring a very similar scenario. Their’s was set in a church, not a classroom, but one of the intended victims was armed.

  9. How about we compare the numbers of Americans killed by gunmurderdeathkillers and the number of Americans killed by their own doctors and hospitals?

    • Ralph,

      They don’t want to look at things in perspective. They don’t want to compare issues or prioritize on that basis. They have an agenda. They are going to isolate, magnify, and twist their particular interests to further that agenda. Their response to you would be “that’s a separate issue.”

  10. I come to TTAG for the truth and facts, I hope I can always rely on their accurate information to continue.

    The MSM is drawn to emotional outbursts for the shock value ratings. Ratings are money.

    Obama is a separate matter, the man is inept to handle his position. He speaks and reacts as a stereotyped hysterical housewife. His latest rant reveals his incompetence. Even Rudy Giuliani has come out speaking unfavorably of increased gun laws, reminding how these laws only control lawful people.

    The NRA, GOA, SAF, etc will see increased membership. I hope these organizations can keep a lid on hysteria.

    • “[T]he burden of proof rests on the proponents of the more guns equal more death and fewer guns equal less death mantra, especially since they argue public policy ought to be based on that mantra. To bear that burden would at the very least require showing that a large number of nations with more guns have more death and that nations that have imposed stringent gun controls have achieved substantial reductions in criminal violence (or suicide). But those correlations are not observed when a large number of nations are compared across the world.”
      –Gary Mauser, Ph.D. and Don B. Kates, Jr. J.D.; “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?”, Harvard’s ‘Journal of Public Law and Policy’

  11. A man who has armed government security for the rest of his life as a retired president is telling the nation you don’t need a gun.
    The college in Oregon thought they were safe by disarming the only guard on the campus.
    Micheal savage is right liberalism is a mental disorder.

  12. Oh now he’s pulling the guilt card We better all watch out a bunch of Hillary Clinton supporters are going to be mob in the media! What a bunch of bullshit! How in the heck did this guy get elected to office He’s a freaking criminal Yeah let’s change the law meaning in layman’s terms let’s change the constitution and I need everybody’s help so that I can screw you! This guy needs to be put in federal prison with an adjoining sell to Hillary Clinton For her miraculous erase all of hard drives I call her the computer gadget girl Her and her husband! We need to stand strong November is just around the corner and this president thinks that he’s going to be in office for him for the next hundred years I guess we need to vote Donald Trump Or at least a gun friendly 2nd amendment supporting Republican I’ll take anyone

  13. The Sheriff of the OR County of Douglas has made it clear his position of being pro-firearm has not changed. He appears to understand the weakness of a non-self-defense position in these gun free zones. This is true common sense from a seasoned member of the law enforcement community.

  14. And how would those numbers change if we omitted homicides related to urban gang activity and drugs? If you want to analyze statistics, Mr. Obama, how about we do some number-crunching and see where and by whom most of those murders are committed?

  15. The large majority of the American public is not only uniformed about almost everything in their daily lives.
    They are flat out stupid. If it doesnt affect their daily routines they dont really care.
    Obama knows this. So does the mass liberal media lapdogs.
    If it bleeds it leads.
    So why not use the mass lapdog network media to advance his political agenda??
    Thankfully the unwashed public also has a short term memory.
    Now the price of everything I want to buy, but havent bought yet will rise again dang it!!!!!
    Just when the ammo and gun prices were starting to level off a bit…………

  16. we can’t measure DGUs either, and before we take away guns let’s measure all the homicides, suicides, and DGUs separately and look at each before making decisions….

  18. I think he makes a great point. We spend almost nothing, and pass almost no laws, to deal with our violent crime rate, yet it’s still incredibly low, except for the government created drug war, and dropping every year. Yet when it comes to terrorism, which accounts for fewer deaths than peanut allergies, we spend trillions and repeatedly pass civil rights violating laws.

    The solution is obvious: stop spending trillions on terrorism, because we don’t need it. Repeal all those fascist laws like the Patriot (sic) Act. And imprison anyone who took part in torture, unwarranted domestic spying, or illegal detentions.

    • “The solution is obvious: stop spending trillions on terrorism, because we don’t need it. Repeal all those fascist laws like the Patriot (sic) Act. And imprison anyone who took part in torture, unwarranted domestic spying, or illegal detentions.”

      That’s exactly my takeaway from that chart too. Since terrorism is basically a non-issue, can we have our 4th and 5th amendment rights back?

    • FYI: “PATRIOT” is an acronym standing for ‘Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism’

  19. “We are collectively answerable to those families”

    Spoken like a true socialist. No we are not, you nanny welfare statist. One person is responsible for their deaths. The shooter. A person on the other side of the country murders someone and its my fault?? Total non-sequitur Orwellian double speak nonsense. Try coming up with a solution that does not sacrifice the liberties and rights of the people and we’ll consider it – otherwise expect a fight too costly for you to bear.

  21. Will someone please find how many of those deaths came directly from his beloved Chicago? That would be an interesting statistic.

  22. If he wasn’t the POTUS, and I was not concerned about being misunderstood, I would say F….orget that guy.

  23. I guess they forgot about all our boys who have been killed every year over in Afghanistan and Iraq fighting the war on terrorism.

    • Heh. Resistance against a foreign invader and occupier is now “terrorism”. The government corruption of the English language continues unabated.

      Those Americans were killed while committing terrorism, brah. They don’t count under “terrorist attacks”.

    • If you come guns blazing to another country, you sorta have to expect some body bags to go in the other directions. Doesn’t really have anything to do with terrorism, just plain old war.

  24. Terrorism is a bit of a loaded term from someone that interchanged it with “workplace violence” when politically expedient.

  25. The MSM would be drinking the Obama Koolaid, except they can’t seem to remove their lips from his ass.

  26. I actually got sucked into a debate on another forum, thanks to the recent shooting… Amazing how many people keep telling me I’m wrong, and then show me “proof”, where their link takes them to Everytown For Gun Safety or Armedwithreason.

    Using rabidly anti-gun groups for gun stats is like asking sharks for shark attack data.

    We’re never going to get anywhere if people in this country accept pathological liars as reputable sources of information.

    • Yeah I asked someone for original sources on “all mass shootings happened with legal firearms” data, and they sent me some unlabeled garbage graph. Probably from CSGV. I was like “No original sources”. (facepalm)

      More and more I am seeing the stereotype of feelings before reason and it scares me. I don’t know how to convince someone who literally can’t fathom that there is any benefit to gun ownership. Like they just patently refuse to fully consider it. Sigh…

  27. Mr. President, are you trying to say that your whole rationale for the TSA’s existence, for suspicionless surveillance of Americans, for indefinite detention without charge, for the CBP’s 100-mile “Constitution Free” zone along all borders and coasts, is just one giant scam?

  28. Eliminate Free Fire Zones, most mass murderers are cowards, usually take themselves out, when the cops show up.

  29. You have to admit he is actually making a good point. Look at that graph for terrorism again. Now think about all the money that’s being spent on it, and on all the numerous infringements on personal rights, from warrantless detainment and torture, to the no-fly list, to bulk interception and collection of communications of the entire country. And we know that most of the money is spent on what is pure security theater – what’s the TSA budget again, for example? and how many terrorists have they caught?

    • There is also the ‘ I can’t seem to do more destruction than OBL pulled off ‘ syndrome . The Boston marathon bombers probably don’t even get a mention in the conversations of terrorist amongst themselves . Nobody cares about the guy that almost ate the most hotdogs . They need to pull off something bigger than 9/11 or they’re just a wannabe .

  30. America’s number one gun salesman, six years running.
    I wonder if the Dems have tumbled to the point that the more they talk about gun control, the more people don’t want it. And the more they talk about “gun violence” the more people go out and buy guns.

    Around 2000, Handgun Control INC, figured it out. In the six years since the passage of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban, which was supposed to mark the beginning of a Brave New World of gun control, there had been a slow but steady backlash against the curtailment of gun rights. Dems basically shut up about gun control and made a point of being seen with traditional hunting firearms. Handgun Control INC became the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and now Democratic presidential candidate uttered a peep about gun control. Sandy Hook made them forget all that. Guns are flying off the shelves, more States are repealing restrictive laws, either willingly or by force and the number of people with concealed carry permits is at an all time high. And still they blather on about it and say they’re going to “politicize” it, whatever that means. One can only hope they remain this stupid, because when they’re up front and obvious about it like this, they’re easier to fight.

  31. I’ve decided I don’t care about most gun violence anymore. The welfare leeches at BLM are planning on disrupting the Minneapolis/St. Paul Twin Cities Marathon, and I’ve decided that every dead criminal saves us $50k a year in prison costs or welfare benefits, so as a taxpayer, I’m okay with gun violence.

    I do hate it when they kill regular taxpayers. Maybe we can classify it as a hate crime?

  32. Bull. Plop. Man that makes me mad.

    Fort Hood. Boston marathon. Benghazi. Surely I’ve missed some. There has definitely been more than one deadly terror attack since 9/11, though.

  33. Gun Grabber in Chief: “I would ask my puppets in the news media, because I dont want to be seen as pulling your strings, to pretend to come up with these facts on your own…”

    Pathetic excuse for a bag of foreskin, all of them.

  35. Looking at this matter in the harsh light of reality, there is no procedure or technology that can reliably identify, or could have reliably identified, the UMPQUA shooter, or any of the other shooters in these events. If there were any reliable methods, technological or procedural, the ACLU would fight them in Court and put a stop to it. We would all agree because what is needed to identify and stop these shooters would massively violate everyone’s lives and privacy.
    There is nothing that can be done proactively {that does not violate everyone’s privacy and rights} to stop .these shooters who manage to stay anonymous until it is too late.
    There is plenty we can do defensively, and we all know what those things are. Obama has no interest in doing those things because he only wants to disarm us. He cannot say that outright, so he alludes to “Gun Safety” vapor laws that cannot exist. It;s Obullma sh*t and he knows it and knows we know it.

  36. How may gun deaths from collateral damage from cops killing people by accident?
    Arm the people so they can protect themselves. No double standards put the DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote.Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com

  37. It is NOT a political choice. It is the supreme law of the land, article 6 paragraph 2. The Bill of Rights is so we can protect ourselves FROM the government. It IS a natural right for self protection BUT the government intervention hassles those that would protect themselves. Your feelings do not trump my right to protect myself. Did he a Muslim say God bless? No double standards put the DC politicians on Obamacare and SS.Thanks for your support and vote.Pass the word. mrpresident2016.com

  38. The Stark Numbers:
    ===============
    153,144 = Killed by firearms between 2001 and 2013
    9,352,420 = Victims of abortion between 2001 and 2013

    Someone exercising their right to legal firearm ownership very rarely results in any loss of life.
    Most firearms deaths can be attributed to the black market, drug trade, and gang wars. Yet Obama and the legal minions are always up in arms over the 2nd Amendment and engage in fact distortion and emotional rhetoric. One could say that that Obama is the “King of Emotional Distortion”.

    However, someone exercising the right to abortion always results in death. But Obama and the same liberal mass shed no tears for the truly defenseless. This nation is morally bankrupt!

    • I’m not going to bother to look, so let’s assume your number correct.

      You seriously want 9MM+ unwanted children to be born? Seriously?

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