> Wait, is your argument really "Compare us to poor countries and failed states so we look good?"

No. It's that if you're saying "this doesn't happen anywhere else" you need to put an asterisk behind that because it requires some qualification.

> Why would we not be compared to our economic and political peers which do not have these problems?

We should be. We aren't, however, those countries + guns. There are many differences and I think some of them are just as if not more significant to our rates of violence than firearms.