December 04, 2015 01:51 PM UTC

The Sad Truth About Gun Violence in America

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• by: Colorado Pols

No country does gun violence quite like the United States.

As the New York Times reports — with some amazingly-specific statistics — people outside of the United States are more likely to be killed by a falling object than a gun:

In Germany, for example, about two out of every million people are fatally shot by another person each year — making such events as uncommon there as the campers’ deaths in Yosemite. Gun homicides are just as rare in several other European countries, including the Netherlands and Austria. In the United States, two per million is roughly the death rate for hypothermia or plane crashes.

In Poland and England, only about one out of every million people die in gun homicides each year — about as often as an American dies in an agricultural accident or falling from a ladder. In Japan, where gun homicides are even rarer, the likelihood of dying this way is about the same as an American’s chance of being killed by lightning — roughly one in 10 million.

In the United States, the death rate from gun homicides is about 31 per million people, which is similar to the rate at which Americans die in car accidents (not including van, truck, bus or motorcycle accidents). The homicides include losses from mass shootings, like those Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., and the week before in Colorado Springs. And of course, they also include the country’s vastly more common single-victim killings.

These comparisons help highlight how exceptional the United States is. Here, where the right to bear arms is cherished by much of the population, gun homicides are a significant public health concern. [Pols emphasis]

Check out the full graphic available at the New York Times to see just how insanely rare it would be to die from gun violence in another country.

Remember this the next time you hear someone say that America would be safer if more people carried guns around with them.