While in Paris for the climate change conference, President Obama commented on the Colorado Springs shooting that killed three people and injured nine others. The president made the claim that mass shootings don't happen in any other country.
Glenn delved into the absurd claim on radio Thursday.
"What about Paris, the town you're in, Mr. President, just a few weeks ago?" Glenn asked.
He then proceeded to list the countries where the most people have been killed in mass shootings per million. Below are the top eight. Note, the U.S. comes in 6th place.
1. Norway 15.3 per million
2. Finland 1.85 per million
3. Slovakia 1.47 per million
4. Israel 1.38
5. Switzerland 0.75
6. U.S. 0.72
7. Belgium 0.63
8. Netherlands 0.42
Listen to the audio from the radio program below. Start at 45:03.
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors.
While in Paris for the climate change conference, President Obama commented on the Colorado Springs shooting that killed three people and injured nine others. The president made the claim that mass shootings don't happen in any other country. What about Paris, the town you're in, Mr. President, just a few weeks ago?
I say this every time we have one of these mass shootings, this just happen in other countries. The president has made that statement in Paris. But are they true?
I have a chart. It shows that the US -- it -- it counts for its population size. So it's how many per million. How many people are killed in mass shootings per million.
When you look at it that way, number one, in mass shootings --
PAT: Of course, the United States of America.
GLENN: No, it's not number one. Actually Norway is number one. So it's Norway.
STU: Is there a state in America called Norway?
GLENN: No.
PAT: It's a city then. It's a capital city.
GLENN: No, it's the socialist country of Norway.
PAT: Oh. Okay. So Norway is number one. How many per million?
GLENN: 15.3.
PAT: Wow. That's high.
GLENN: Total rampage fatalities, 15.3. Total rampage shooting fatalities, 77. Total rampage shooting incidents, .19. So that's number one, Norway.
Number two --
PAT: This is where the US comes in.
GLENN: Finland. It would be the socialist country of Finland.
PAT: Is it really? Finland.
GLENN: Finland. Per million, 1.85.
STU: Norway has got quite a lead on that one.
PAT: Yeah. Jeez.
STU: That one incident with the guy who -- I mean, with the exception of Paris, was the worst one ever. Right? I mean, Paris is I guess now the worst one.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: Slovakia is number three. 1.47 per million. Israel is number four at 1.38. Then Switzerland is five at .75.
PAT: Switzerland.
GLENN: Switzerland. Then the United States at .72. Then Belgium at .63. Then the Netherlands at .42.
PAT: Six. Wow.
GLENN: So a lot of these countries -- a lot of these countries are socialist. A lot of these countries also have wild gun control.
PAT: Gun control. Hmm.
STU: Yeah, the only exception to that really on that list is Switzerland. But everyone else, I mean, is pretty restrictive.
GLENN: Israel has a lot of guns, I think.
STU: I think Israel has fairly restrictive gun laws.
GLENN: They might. They might. They might. Yeah, but you can't really count Switzerland because Switzerland, you know, you got all those Palestinians there. You know, of course, there's going to be a rampage shooting there because the Israelis deserve it, really. They brought it on themselves for, you know, taking that homeland state that was given to them by the United Nations. So they kind of deserve it, don't you think?
So there's your -- there's your lie with the president. The president says, "This never happens." Yes, it does. And those are the hard facts, Mr. President.
STU: So what's the comeback to that? The comeback to that is, "Well, these are small countries with one big incident." Norway is the obvious one there. It's a smaller country. Has one big incident, blows those numbers out of proportion. That would be the argument against that.
Okay. So let's normalize the entire EU. Let's put it population versus population. Then what comes out? What comes out when you do that and you include the mass shootings, what you get is over a period of -- from 2002 to 2015, 352 casualties in the EU and 322 in the United States. So more casualties in the EU than the United States. And injuries, it's far worse. 933 injuries in the EU. 473 in the US.
JEFFY: That can't be though. Because what he said in France, "This doesn't happen in other countries."
PAT: Right. Unparalleled.
JEFFY: He changed the wording when he came back to the United States.
PAT: He did. He did.
JEFFY: And said just, "There's no other parallel." He threw "parallel" in there.
STU: He also said -- "With this much frequency" is his other one. And that may be very specific to this today, which shows that while there is a -- a higher incident of actual events when you normalize over population, there are more mass shootings, quote, unquote, in the US than there are in the EU. The EU versions are much worse. They're much more deadly.
GLENN: Yeah, but it doesn't have anything to do with guns.
STU: Maybe it has to do with people trying to defend themselves. Maybe it has to do with they have worse police forces in the EU. I don't know what their answer to that is. But you're talking about almost twice as many people die in each incident when it happens in the EU.
GLENN: Was I the only guy last night that was watching TV and when they said, "They're telling people know -- they're going house to house, and they're looking for another one of these -- another one of these perpetrators." And you had already seen two dead bodies in the street. You already knew that there were 17 people that were killed. So you knew what these people were capable of. And they said, "Stay in your home and lock your doors." Did anybody else think, I'm so glad I don't live in California, because if somebody told me, stay in my home, lock my doors, the first place I'd go is to my gun safe, and I get my freaking guns out and even my children would be holding guns. If they were in my neighborhood, I would be waiting inside. And if somebody comes into my house, I'm going to shoot you dead. But instead, you're in California, so you can't protect yourself.
Look at what -- just think of the insanity this is. Think of the mass delusion that is going on.
