Obama Calls for "National Reckoning" After Church Shooting

Not surprisingly, President Obama used his remarks on the Charleston, S.C. church shooting to once again lament the easy access to firearms in this country.  Saying that no other advanced country experiences the incidence of mass shootings and that "it is within our power to do something about it."

What Obama did not say is that all but two of the mass shootings that have taken place in the United States since 1950 have been in places guns are banned.  And as for those other "advanced countries?" They have not been as immune to mass shootings as the President would like us to think. This from a 2010 Op/Ed by Dr. John Lott:

Multiple victim public shootings were assumed to be an American thing for it is here the guns are, right? No, not at all. Contrary to public perception, Western Europe, where most countries have much tougher gun laws, has experienced many of the worst multiple victim public shootings. Particularly telling, all the multiple victim public shootings in Europe occurred where guns are banned. So it is in the United States, too -- all the multiple victim public shootings (where more than three people have been killed) have taken place where civilians are not allowed to have a gun.

Lott also noted in that article at the time of its writing, multiple victim public shootings appeared to be at least as common in Europe as they are here.