The U.S. is the most heavily armed country in the world

I just came across an article on newsandpolicy.com titled “U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people”.

It’s a quick article that starts off with the headline “U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.”

The article continues…

“There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people. India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people. Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.”

That’s a lot of firearms! But does this have any bearing on the crime committed in those countries?

I took a quick jump over to Nation Master to look at the violent crime statistics per capita… specifically Murders (per capita).

It makes for a remarkable list…

#1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people
#2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people
#3 Jamaica: 0.324196 per 1,000 people
#4 Venezuela: 0.316138 per 1,000 people
#5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people
#6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people
#7 Estonia: 0.107277 per 1,000 people
#8 Latvia: 0.10393 per 1,000 people
#9 Lithuania: 0.102863 per 1,000 people
#10 Belarus: 0.0983495 per 1,000 people

And the United States?

#24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people

That’s interesting. The country with the most firearms in the world is #24 out of a total of #62 polled countries for murders per capita. And the other countries mentioned in the top tier of firearm possession?

India is 26th.

France is 40th.

Germany is 49th.

So the majority of the countries that possess the majority of the firearms in the world have a lower rate of murder per capita then those countries that have fewer firearms.

Whodathunkthat?

The article back on newsandpolicy also states something very thought-provoking…

“… many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.”

Wow.

And as a quick closing observation, isn't it still very illegal to own a firearm in Mexico? How did they get all the way up to number 6 if nobody can legally have a firearm in that country?

Like the dead horse likes to say, even if a genie came and magicked all the guns away, evil people would still do bad things with knives, pointy objects, rocks, or even their own fists.

Guns are not the problem.

It all comes back to personal responsibility.

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