This week a lone shooter stalked into an American cinema and opened fire at random, killing two people and wounding seven before turning the gun on himself.

It is the latest in a string of massacres in the United States that has reignited the debate on gun control, with Obama admitting on Thursday that his government has failed to tackle the problem.

"If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands," he told the BBC. "For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing."

But how does the rate of firearm murders in the United States stack up against the rest of the world? The results are somewhat surprising.

The rate of gun murders per 100,000 people in the United States 3.55, a figure dwarved by the rate per capita of Columbia (27.1) and South Africa (17) to name just two.

But compared to first world countries such as France, Canda and Spain, 3.55 deaths per capita is a staggeringly high figure.

France's gun murder rate per 100,000 people is only 0.22, whereas in Spain it is 0.15.

David Fuller's view

According to the second Telegraph article below, “a staggering 270 million firearms are owned by civilians in the US, with around 53,000 gun related incidents last year alone.”

No civilized country should have the USA’s gun laws.

(See also: America’s gun control problem – by numbers)