"Homicide rates tend to be related to firearm ownership levels. Everything else being equal, a reduction in the percentage of households owning firearms should occasion a drop in the homicide rate".

Evidence to the Cullen Inquiry 1996: Thomas Gabor, Professor of Criminology - University of Ottawa

"The level of gun ownership world-wide is directly related to murder and suicide rates and specifically to the level of death by gunfire."

International Correlation between gun ownership and rates of homicide and suicide.' Professor Martin Killias, May 1993.

Gun Deaths - International Comparisons

 Gun deaths per 100,000 population (for the year indicated): 

	Homicide	Suicide	Other (inc Accident)
USA (2001)	3.98	5.92	0.36
Italy (1997)	0.81	1.1	0.07
Switzerland (1998)	0.50	5.8	0.10
Canada (2002)	0.4	2.0	0.04
Finland (2003)	0.35	4.45	0.10
Australia (2001)	0.24	1.34	0.10
France (2001)	0.21	3.4	0.49
England/Wales (2002)	0.15	0.2	0.03
Scotland (2002)	0.06	0.2	0.02
Japan (2002)	0.02	0.04	0

Data taken from Cukier and Sidel (2006) The Global Gun Epidemic. Praeger Security International.  Westport.

> See More Data

> See also the GunPolicy.org Website

Guns and Suicide

Data on suicide and firearms from other countries can be viewed as a warning to us in the UK of some of the effects of firearm possession.  Most articles show that the storage of a firearm in the home predicts an increased rate of a violent death. The articles have been referenced so that those interested can obtain further information.

> See also the GunPolicy.org Website

Handguns

The two 1997 Firearms (Amendment) Acts resulted in the prohibition of the vast majority of handguns in Great Britain.  As a result of the prohibition and the surrender exercise, more than 162,000 handguns were handed in to local police forces.

Handgun Surrender and Compensation. Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General NAO, 1999.

Gun Crime in Great Britain

See: The latest official figures for gun crime in England and Wales

The latest gun crime figures from Scotland

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Firearms Amnesty

During the month long firearms amnesty in April 2003, over 43,000 guns were surrendered in England and Wales and 3393 in Scotland.

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Firearms Incidents

Behind all the statistics are the actual incidents that result in the suffering of innocent people and animals.  These lists reveal the consequence of the continued misuse of firearms.

> Details

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Massacres and Legally-Held Firearms

Worldwide, the majority of recent shooting massacres have been committed with legally-held weapons.

To be updated

 Some Statistics from the USA

In 1999, there were 28,874 gun-related deaths in the United States - over 80 deaths every day. (Source: Hoyert DL, Arias E, Smith BL, Murphy SL, Kochanek, KD.  Deaths: Final Data for 1999. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2001;49 (8).)

Between 1993-1999, gun deaths in the United States have declined 27%. (SOURCE: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/default.htm, WISQARS, National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, accessed March, 2002.)

In 1999, 58% of all gun deaths were suicides, and 38% were homicides. (SOURCE: Hoyert DL, Arias E, Smith BL, Murphy SL, Kochanek, KD.  Deaths: Final Data for 1999. National Vital Statistics Reports. 2001;49 (8).)

Of all suicides, 57% occurred by firearm (SOURCE: http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/wisqars/default.htm, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS), National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, accessed March, 2002.)

In 2000, 75,685 people (27/100,000) suffered non-fatal firearm gunshot injuries.  (SOURCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reports for the United States: Crime in the United States 2000: Uniform Crime Reports.  Washington, D.C: U.S. Department of Justice; 2001.)

Bibliography

International

The Global Gun Epidemic.  From Saturday Night Specials to AK-47s by Wendy Cukier and Victor W Sidel.   Praeger Security International. 2006.

UK

Gun Control and Snowdrop by Stuart Thomson, Lara Stancich and Lisa Dickson.  In “Protest Politics. Cause Groups and Campaigns” edited by FF Ridley and Grant Jordan.  Oxford University Press. 1998.

Dunblane: Never Forget by Mick North.  Mainstream Publishing. 2000.

Gun Culture or Gun Control? Firearms, Violence and Society by Peter Squires. Routledge. 2000.

USA

Making a Killing. The Business of Guns in America by Tom Diaz.  The New Press. 1999.

Gun Violence. The Real Costs by Philip J Cook and Jens Ludwig.  Oxford University Press. 2000.

Every Handgun is Aimed at You. The Case for Banning Handguns by Josh Sugarmann.  The New Press. 2001.

Gun Control. The Pros and Cons by Tom Streissguth.  Enslow Publishers. 2001.

Can Gun Control Work? by James B Jacobs.  Oxford University Press. 2002.

Evaluating Gun Policy. Effects on Crime and Violence edited by Jens Ludwig and Philip J Cook.  2003. The Brooking Institution,

Private Guns  Public Health by David Hemenway.  University of Michigan Press.  2004.

The Politics of Gun Control by Robert J Spitzer.  CQ Press. 2004

Gun Show Nation.  Gun Culture and American Democracy by Joan Burbick.  The New Press. 2006.

Canada

December 6. From the Montreal Massacre to Gun Control by Heidi Rathjen and Charles Montpetit (with afterword by Wendy Cukier)  M&S. 1999.

Australia

Over our Dead Bodies. Port Arthur and Australia’s Fight for Gun Control by Simon Chapman.  Pluto Press. 1998.

 

Updated: March 2011