If you have felt disappointed because Secretary of State John Kerry hasn’t yet joined most of his Obama administration colleagues to offer an ignorant opinion on the gun debate, well, this post is for you. While on a trip to Asia ostensibly to deal with the crisis on the Korean peninsula, Kerry took time out to poll his hosts on their views of gun control:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2w71PQnIQyc

It’s difficult to know where to start with this nonsense. First, as we have repeatedly pointed out, gun deaths have declined each year since the expiration of the nonsensical “assault weapons” ban in 2007, in every category.  You are twice as likely to die from “personal weapons” as from rifles of any kind, according to FBI crime statistics.  Gun ownership levels aren’t rapidly changing, and to the extent they are, the correlative drop in gun-related homicide victims at the very least means (a) the US is getting safer over the last several years, and (b) legal gun ownership isn’t statistically related to crime.

By the way, would these students feel safer in Chicago and Washington DC, where gun-control laws are much more prevalent?  If so, then those students should study statistical math before coming to the US.

Eliana Johnson at NRO points out that Kerry needs some work on statistical analysis, too.  According to a recent study, the reason Japanese students don’t travel as much to the US is because they don’t travel much at all any more, and there are fewer of them to make that decision:

In 2011, Japan sent 21,290 students to study in the United States, making it the seventh largest country of origin for international scholars. That was down 14% from the previous year, according to numbers from the Institute of International Education.

Figures have shown international study is down markedly among Japanese students to all destinations, including the United States. Experts have attributed the decline to Japan’s low birthrate, the expense of foreign study in a poor economy, and a desire among Japanese young people to remain at home rather than venture to other countries.

Smart power.