Well I'd love to hear how to "treat the disease" not the symptom. Countries that have elminated or have strict controls on the right to own guns have lower rates of death by gunfire. Not so strange huh?

You do realize that our constitution doesn't give you the right to own a gun right? That was for our militia to fight the British.






Whenever the U.S. murder rate is compared with that of other countries, as it often is, the figures reveal a far greater frequency of gun-related deaths in the U.S. than elsewhere. In 1996, for instance, 30 people were killed with handguns in Great Britain, 106 in Canada and 211 in Germany. In the U.S., 9,390 died this way. In Japan,15.

The U.S. stands alone among the world's nations in the degree to which it grants citizens access to guns. It also has the world's highest rate of violent crime. "On the gun issue, foreigners just do not get it. They just cannot understand how America let things come to this," a Los Angeles Times editorial calling for gun control begins. "They hear the news of cold-blooded murders of German and British tourists in Florida...and they just cannot believe it."

Americans attitudes toward gun control baffle citizens of other nations. In Canada, where residents "feel a special kinship with the United States and find much to admire in their southern neighbor, most are appalled...by America's refusal to seriously restrict possession of handguns," a Boston Globe story noted in 1994.

It's tough to get a handgun license in Canada. They're issued only to members of police-approved target shooting clubs, collectors and some security guards. The result: Canadians own one million handguns and five million rifles and shotguns. By comparison, Americans own an estimated 192 million firearms, including more than 65 million handguns according to an estimate by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in 1994.

In Japan, gun owners must pass a rigorous screening process to own a gun. Handguns are primarily restricted to police. Hunters are permitted to possess a rifle or shotgun only after navigating a complicated licensing procedure. These restrictions mean that Japan averages less than 30 gun murders a year, compared with nearly 11,000 in the U.S.

In Great Britain, an already strict set of laws was further tightened in June of 1997 following the 1996 massacre of 16 children and their teacher at a primary school in Dunblane, Scotland. The British government responded to the slaughter by banning all handguns in civillian possession.

Many of the victims of American gun violence have been children as well. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control shows that American children are nearly 12 times more likely to die from a gun injury than children in 25 other industrialized countries combined. They are 11 times more likely to use a gun to commit suicide and nine times more likely to die from an unintentional shooting.


http://www.jointogether.org/gv/issues/problem/global/