Myth Busted: U.S. Much Safer Than Many Peer Nations

Authored by John R. Lott Jr. via RealClearInvestigations,

Conventional wisdom holds that the United States is the most violent and dangerous nation in the developed world. This dark view is frequently invoked by conservatives to demand stronger penalties for crimes and by progressives to argue for stronger gun laws.

At the same time, other nations point to crime as an Achilles heel of the American system. These include two peer nations with some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world - Australia and Canada. In 2025, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that "the U.S. generally sees higher violent crime rates than many other countries." Last year, the Canadian Press similarly reported that "the number of police-reported violent crimes for every 100,000 people continue to be higher in the United States than in Canada."

The data, however, undercuts this narrative. While the United States still leads in some categories, on the whole it has significantly less violent crime per capita than those two nations.

Regarding homicide, the most heinous crime of all, it's true that in 2025, the U.S. murder rate was about four per 100,000 people - roughly twice Australia's and Canada's 2024 homicide rate. READ MORE AT SOURCE »