America's gun culture

America's obsession with guns is in the news again with the recent fatal shooting of elementary school children by a gunman whose mother, also killed by the gunman, was a gun enthusiast who frequently took his son to the shooting range.

When a few days ago someone posted a statistical comparison on Facebook showing gun deaths for selected countries, I thought some analysis might reveal that, proportionally, American gun deaths may not be as serious as initial numbers would suggest if these countries' populations are applied.

I was wrong.

In terms of numbers the United States outstrips many countries in the world but the United States is not, historically, the leading country in the world for firearm related deaths per 100,000:

No.	Country	Killed
1	United States	10,728
2	Israel	58
3	Canada	52
4	Japan	48
5	West Germany	42
6	Switzerland	34
7	Sweden	21
8	Great Britain	8

But at almost 11,000 deaths the United States does not only have the leading number of gun deaths, but even when population is factored in the comparison it still takes the lead for the selected countries.

Individuals killed by guns for selected countries (ranked by percent killed):

No.	Country	Killed	Population	Percent Killed
1	United States	10,728	314,947,000	0.00340629
2	Israel	58	7,956,000	0.00072901
3	Switzerland	34	8,000,001	0.00042500
4	Sweden	21	9,546,217	0.00021998
5	Canada	52	35,009,100	0.00014853
6	West Germany	42	81,874,000	0.00005130
7	Japan	48	127,547,000	0.00003763
8	Great Britain	8	63,100,000	0.00001268

On another Facebook update on the same subject someone defended the right of American citizens to bear arms and defend themselves and their families from all the bad elements in society that may want to cause harm to them. He suggested that people should not be swayed by the emotions of the time.

I am trying to imagine someone remaining "emotionless" by the killing of children. By the killing of anyone, period.