The US has more guns, in private ownership, per capita than any other nation on earth

It seems to me like gun ownership is a pretty safe endevor. With as many guns as Americans supposably own you would think we would have hundreds of daily shootings in the streets.

The news media makes it seem like there is sometimes. But the reality is the number of shootings in the streets is fairly low.

The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world.

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.

www.reuters.com...

In 1995, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms estimated that the number of firearms available in the US was 223 million.

Source:
"Bureau of Justice Statistics Selected Findings". www.ojp.usdoj.gov... Retrieved 2008-01-21.

Ref: en.wikipedia.org...-10

About 25% of the adults in the United States personally own a gun, the vast majority of them men.

Source:
Cook, Philip J.; Ludwig, Jens (2003). Evaluating gun policy: effects on crime and violence. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press. pp. s. 3,4. ISBN 0-8157-5311-X.

Ref: en.wikipedia.org...-10

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Freedom or Death]

Excellent take on the situation. That does seem to say a lot.

S&F. This should be a good topic for debate.

When we watch the news from up here, it does seem like there is a lot of gun crime down there. You are right though, there is a lot of people in the US. 10 times more than here It seems like most of the gun crime down there is people having pschotic breaks, and shooting everyone in sight. More so lately with the economy, people are in bad moods. If there was too much shooting in the streets, they would probably be trying to tighten up the laws a little.
Up here we have so few people, so our gun crime is usually gang related. Problem here is, depending on the court involved and circumstances, I am not sure if we are even allowed to properly defend our home. We should be able to, but how do you PROVE without a shadow of a doubt, that the intruder would have killed you? We have self defense options here, but it is supposed to be when all other means are totally exhausted. Allright, now I am liking your country's gun laws better and better.

It might be interesting to look into the deaths by firearms based on the number of firearms rather than strictly by population. From what I've read it might show that we actually have a rather low murder rate with guns in terms relative to the number of fire arms we have here.

Either way, small arms are part of the American culture and history, and I'm surprised that any nation that used them to remove foreign authority isn't the same way.

The number of privately held weapons should be on a ticker in Congress as a friendly reminder.

And while you are debating the issue. How many firearm deaths were caused by known "Criminals" It would be interesting to also find out how many Illegally owned firearms have been used in said crimes.

I keep mine under lock and key.

reply to post by Freedom or Death


I think that the numbers are not showing the whole story. They are dividing up the number of arms among all citizens.

But Most of the people I know don't own guns. Those who do, collect, so they have dozens. I can see where it would divide out more if you averaged it.

Originally posted by nixie_nox

I think that the numbers are not showing the whole story. They are dividing up the number of arms among all citizens.

But Most of the people I know don't own guns. Those who do, collect, so they have dozens. I can see where it would divide out more if you averaged it.

If we take 300 Million and divide it by 3/4 (Number of adults) we get 225 Million. Now take 225 million adults and multiply it by 25% and we get 56 Million adults own at least 1 gun and most probably own more than 1 gun.

225 million guns divided by the number of gun owners equals about 4 guns per gun owner.

Some own one, others own enough to arm a small army.

[edit on 13-6-2010 by Freedom or Death]

Hi everybody. Down here in NC, we love our guns. Most homes have at least one and it is safe to say..that if you own one gun, you probably have 3 or more. Why just in our county, there are easily more guns than people. Heck, my wife had a .45 and a shotgun before I met her...

Anyway, as stated in other posts, if a large preponderance of weapons instigates shootings and carnage...we should look like Bosnia.... but we don't. We don't lock our doors at night, and very little crime is committed here. Usually, there is the lover's spat or a drug deal gone bad...but for the most part, even criminals know that you don't go messin' round people's stuff...you'll get shot.

Here in NC, we have the "Make My Day" law...if you break into another person' home and they feel threatend for their life...they can legally shoot you and kill you....no questions asked...after the initial investigation.

Ya'll come back now,...hear?

reply to post by snowspirit


Crime is concentrated. Now my quid pro quo is that your gonna hear the bad stories, and yes, there are horrific crimes. But the guy going on a shooting spree at a mall is ONE GUY out of a population of 300 million.

As I always tell people, if you never watched the news or read the papers, how does your neighborhood look? Most neighborhoods would look pretty safe.

the crimes you do hear about, while yes some are psychotic, most are drug deals or gangs.

I live near one of the worst cities. So the first 15 minutes of the news is a run down of all the killings. BUT, they all happen in the same areas because of the gangs and drug violence. But this is not dispursed evenly throughout all areas.

Now to get even more explanatory, I live in an extremely gun conservative state, where they have made it all but illegal to own a gun. So much so, that those who own or do collect, don't even admit it openly, it is so stigmatized. So the only people who have guns are criminals, and they use them without thought.

So I had the unique experieince of moving to AZ,which is a very open state about guns. It freaked me out, and took awhiile to get used too. Now while theft was high, I didn't see 15 minutes on the news of all the killings, because when everyone carries, there was little personal crime that I could observe.
And people respect their guns. Though they are not required, many took training beyond what they needed. it was like owning cars, they respected them and took their responsibilities seriously. You heard way more about children drownging in pools.

But yes, I am very well aware of the reputation that the US has.

But because the US is usually in the forefront of news(and no I don't take -ride in that) because it is like the Hollywood of the news, you might hear a lot more about one particular country then others. Just like you don't hear the good stories coming out of the middle east. Which the following story I am about to tell makes me wonder.

Funny but sad story, a friend of mine is first generation Eastern Indian. She went with her parents to visit some relatives in India. She is a young, educated, professional single woman who does a kind job of working for a non profit that places people with disabilities with jobs. She is from DC. Apparently the reputation of the US is far flung. Because a neighbor heard she is from a major city in teh US, and that apparently all Americans are capable assassins, this neighbor, who is a landlord, asked her to "take out" a tenant of his, who wasn't paying rent and who wasn't williing to vacate. Now, while against the law, apparently society looks the other way at this sort of thing. This was the funniest thing ever, but several things can be learned from it.

Violence that is taboo is reported. other countries may have much more crime, but it is not taboo, therefor not news to them. And the news can be skewed, that even a young,female professional from teh US is a capable assassin.

in the rural part of Texas.... everybody has a gun and we go out on the weekend to shoot our reloads.....
in the removed rural areas....further out in the boonies...we carry them in the truck for snake charmers....in the city, they are very common in the car seat or glove box....the rough and ready construction old timers keep 'em for trouble on the jobsite. girls have slim line ones in their front pocket!
we see guns all the time, Texas....wyoming arkansas, montana....yesssirr
hey, over there in missouri....they are required by law to keep one in the household

[edit on 13-6-2010 by GBP/JPY]

reply to post by Freedom or Death


It's great, isn't it!
That number is only growing!

I like the "make my day" law. It would prevent many break ins.

Up here the first thing they would do though is take away the unregistered hunting rifle They are still arguing over the registering long guns law. Farmers need their rifles, so many predators, and pesky beavers. They should not have to be registered.

I think it is a lot harder to get a legal registered handgun in Canada. Which makes it a lot harder to handle self defense issues.

registered that is. in some countries you can own whatever you want as long as you can afford it. in them there is no way to keep track of how many people own guns or how many gun is in that country. we own mostly pistols but they own assault rifles and high power weapons.

guns are so cewl i especially like pistols