An Overview of Gun Control in US, Canada and Globally

The United States stands out among developed countries for being home to
approximately one third of all firearms in the world and weak controls
on access to firearms.

The rate of gun ownership in the US is much higher than most comparable
countries, with approximately 42.8% of American household owning
firearms, including 17.6% owning handguns in 2005. The developed country
with the next highest ownership rate was Finland, where 37.9% of the
population owning firearms, though only 6.3% owned handguns. Switzerland
was the country with the second highest handgun ownership, at 10.3%,
with an overall rate of 28.6% for all firearms. In Canada, 15.5% of
households own firearms, with 2.9% owning handguns.

Where there are more guns, more deaths usually follow. The death rate
by firearms in the United States was 10.2 per 100,000 people in 2009,
for a total of 31,347 deaths. This is nearly as many as in car
accidents, where 34,485 Americans died that same year. The American rate
of death by firearms is nearly twice as high as the nearest other
developed country, again Finland, with a rate of 4.47 in 2008. In
Canada, the rate was 2.5 in 2009, while the UK had only 0.25 in 2011.

Some studies have examined the link between gun ownership rates and
firearm death rates, with one comparing rates in Canada, the US,
England/Wales and Australia. It concluded that 92 percent of the
variance in death rates was explained by differences in access to
firearms. The rates of death from firearms in Canada in the United
States have also been studied, with one of the most well-known analyses
being a comparison of Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British
Columbia that showed that despite similarities in size and demographics,
the rate of firearm homicide is considerably different as a result of
the differences in the availability of firearms in the two countries.

Like with overall firearm deaths, the consequences of permissive access
to firearms can also be seen in homicide and crime statistics. The US
homicide rate (per 100,000) committed without guns is only slightly
higher (1.4 times) than the Canadian rate. However the rate of homicide
with guns in the U.S. is 6 times higher than that seen in Canada and the
rate of homicide with handguns in the U.S. (2.41 per 100,000) is 7 times
higher than the Canadian rate (0.33 per 100,000). The pattern with
robbery is similar. In the United States, there were more than 408,000
robberies in 2009, 36 percent of them with firearms, with a rate of 55
per 100,000. In Canada, in contrast, there were 32,200 robberies, 14
percent of them with firearms, for a rate of 13 per 100,000. Yet the
rates of robberies without firearms are roughly the same in the two
countries. (Click on this link for table and graphs)


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