Every once in a while, an intriguing fact hits my X feed, and it’s worth exploring a bit more. [some emphasis, links added]
For years, European media outlets have painted the U.S. as lawless, chaotic, and uniquely dangerous, all while confidently presenting their own societies as models of enlightened, culturally superior governance.
But reality, as it often does, has a way of complicating tidy narratives.
As Europe heads into another summer season, a less-publicized statistic popped up on my screen: heat-related deaths across the continent exceed the number of gun deaths in the U.S.
Yes, that comparison is as striking as it sounds, and is also notably absent from many of the same outlets eager to criticize American risks.
Let’s look at the numbers.
The United Nations (UN) news service, summarizing World Health Organization (WHO) analyses, reports that approximately 489,000 heat‑related deaths occurred globally each year between 2000 and 2019, and that the WHO European Region accounts for about 36% of this total.
This corresponds to about 175,000 heat‑related deaths per year in Europe over that period.
“A staggering 175,000 people die from heat-related causes every year in Europe and that figure is set to soar in line with our steadily warming planet. That’s the warning from the UN World Health Organization (WHO), which said on Friday that European countries are seeing temperatures rise at around twice the global average.
“…’In the European region, heat stress is the leading cause of climate-related death in the region,’ he said. ‘Temperature extremes such as those we’re experiencing at the moment are really exacerbating chronic conditions, including cardiovascular, respiratory and cerebro-vascular diseases, mental health and diabetes-related conditions. The extreme heat that we’re experiencing is a particular problem for elderly people, especially those living alone. It can also place an additional burden on pregnant women.’ “
In comparison, a little over 44,000 people in the U.S. die each year from gunshot wounds…and most of those are self-inflicted.
“In 2024, the most recent year with complete data, 44,447 people died from gun-related injuries, according to the CDC. That figure includes gun homicides and gun suicides, along with three less common types of gun-related deaths the CDC tracks: those that involved law enforcement, those that were accidental and those with undetermined circumstances.
“The total excludes deaths in which gunshot injuries played a contributing, but not principal, role. (CDC fatality statistics are based on information from official death certificates, which identify a single cause of death.)
“…Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related homicides, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2024, 62% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides (27,593), while 35% were homicides (15,364). The rest involved law enforcement (636), were accidental (450) or had undetermined circumstances (404); each of these categories accounted for around 1% of all gun deaths, according to CDC data.”
If the Europeans were truly interested in mitigating heat-related deaths, perhaps they should focus on more efficient and less expensive energy sources.
Air conditioning can help reduce the number of heat deaths.
Interestingly, nighttime light-level assessments show a dimming of man-made light in Europe. “Net Zero” inanity and the cost of electricity in the region have more to do with this observation than the use of LED lightbulbs.
“The authors concluded that internationally, nighttime light surged in China and northern India along with urban development, while LEDs and energy conservation measures coincided with reduced light pollution in Paris and throughout France (a 33 percent dimming), the UK (22 percent dimming), and the Netherlands (21 percent dimming). European nights dimmed sharply in 2022 during a regional energy crisis that followed the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
The takeaway here is not that one risk negates another, or that tragedies should be tallied like scorecards in a geopolitical rivalry. Rather, narratives matter… and so does intellectual honesty.
When European institutions and their media allies fixate on American flaws while downplaying their own policy failures, they invite scrutiny of the kind they so readily direct outward.
Read rest at Legal Insurrection
Yeah, almost 2/3rds of the deaths by guns in the US are by suicide. Take the guns away they will still find a way to commit suicide.
Years ago, read a book on teenage suicide around the world. One of the worst rates, Sari Lanka. No guns available. Where did the youngsters look – under the kitchen sink. A very saddening read.
It would also be interesting and useful to know how the number of cold-related deaths per year in Europe compares with the number of gunshot-related deaths per year in the U.S. I suspect that the former will be found (if it hasn’t already been found) to exceed the latter by an even greater margin.