Washington—Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) today delivered remarks before the committee on the need to act on gun reform legislation:

             An excerpt from Feinstein’s remarks follows, and video is available here:

             “The New York Times reported several months ago that Americans, while we make up about 4.4 percent of the global population, we own 42 percent of the world’s guns. Four percent of us own 42 percent of the world’s guns.

             “A University of Alabama Professor, Adam Lankford, found in 2015 that from 1966 to 2012, 31 percent of gunmen in mass shootings worldwide were American. 

             “Thirty-one percent of mass shootings were carried out worldwide by Americans. That’s stunning to me.

             “America’s gun homicide rate was 33 per million people in 2009, far exceeding the average among developed countries.

             “These statistics show exactly that our country is the leading perpetrator of gun deaths. 

             “So I hope that we can finally come together to work on gun violence reforms that will make a difference, today and in the future.”