Sorry Simon, you might feel there is a direct linkage but it is not that simple, like I said.
Look at Switzerland; very high gun ownership, very low homicide rate - and typically gun ownership in Switzerland consists of an automatic pistol and a assault rifle in the cellar of every man between 20 and 42 (from memory).
Look at this graph I took and added to from a few sources;
| Country | Year | Population | Total Homicide | Firearm Homicide | Non-Gun Homicide | Suicide | % of National Income/Consumption of Poorest 20% | % Households With Guns |
| United States | 1999 | 272,691,000 | 5.7 | 3.72 | 1.98 | 6.08 | 5.2 | 39 |
| Finland | 1994 | 5,088,333 | 3.24 | 0.86 | 2.38 | | 10 | 23.2 |
| Italy | 1992 | 56,764,854 | 2.25 | 1.66 | 0.59 | | 8.7 | 16 |
| Scotland | 1994 | 5,132,400 | 2.24 | 0.19 | 2.05 | 0.27 | 6.1 | 4.7 |
| Canada | 1992 | 28,120,065 | 2.16 | 0.76 | 1.4 | 2.65 | 7.5 | 29.1 |
| Australia | 1994 | 17,838,401 | 1.86 | 0.44 | 1.42 | | 5.9 | 19.4 |
| New Zealand | 1993 | 3,458,850 | 1.47 | 0.17 | 1.3 | | 6.2 | 22.3 |
| Belgium | 1990 | 9,967,387 | 1.41 | 0.6 | 0.81 | | 8.3 | 16.6 |
| England/Wales | 1997 | 51,429,000 | 1.41 | 0.11 | 1.3 | 0.22 | 6.1 | 4.7 |
| Switzerland | 1994 | 7,021,000 | 1.32 | 0.58 | 0.74 | 5.78 | 6.9 | 27.2 |
| Sweden | 1993 | 8,718,571 | 1.3 | 0.18 | 1.12 | | 9.6 | 15.1 |
| Germany | 1994 | 81,338,093 | 1.17 | 0.22 | 0.95 | | 8.2 | 8.9 |
| France | 1994 | 57,915,450 | 1.12 | 0.44 | 0.68 | | 7.2 | 22.6 |
| Netherlands | 1994 | 15,382,830 | 1.11 | 0.36 | 0.75 | | 7.2 | 1.9 |
| Norway | 1993 | 4,324,815 | 0.97 | 0.3 | 0.67 | | 9.7 | 32 |
| Spain | 1993 | 39,086,079 | 0.95 | 0.21 | 0.74 | | 7.5 | 13.1 |
| http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html | | | | | |
| http://www.gun-control-network.org/GF01.htm | | | | | |
| http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_inc_dis_poo_20# | | | | |
My reading of the trends on this are that countries with high gun ownership do not neccesarily have high gun homicides. In additon to availability, people have to have a reason to use the guns.
Look at how both the Swiss and Americans "benefit" from having high gun ownership, by having high levels of gun suicides, with Canada fitting the trend very well.
Look at how the USA has high gun ownership AND how it's poorest 20% are 12% worse off than any other country (the USA's distribution of wealth is akin to African or Latin American countries rather than European countries).
It is the COMBINATION of those two (and obviously other factors) that give the USA it's high gun homicide rate, not just gun availability.
Availability of guns is not what kills people.
Guns don't kill people, it's being in a social underclass with no reasonable hope of escape (see my recent comments on other threads about how the USA's educational system ghettoises the poor no matter what race) and a feeling of disengagement from mainstream society that makes people use guns to kill people. .
Not as catchy, but far truer than "guns don't kill people, people kill people".
The killing is either as part of competition between black market traders, like drug dealers or of others out of the underclass as they have shit that is worth something. Add in the incrased ease of blowing away a family memeber when you're feeling pissy (the kind of a thing that ends in bruises or a yelling match with no firearms in the house), and WHALLA!, you have the highest murder rate in the civilised world, although that looks like an oxymoron now I have typed it...
The indifference of American politicians to this stagnant unchanging situation, and the resultant diengagement of those affected by it is what makes the USA's gun homicide rate so high. It is a social issue, not a supply issue.
Either that, or American's simply like killing each other, but I don't believe that for a second...
