ABSTRACT
International comparisons of homicides and guns A common argument among gun control advocates is that homicide rates, and especially gun-related homicide rates, are much higher in the United States than they are in the rest of the world. They contend that this is true because of the easy availability of firearms and the lax gun control laws that exist in the United States. Gun control opponents, however, contend that our homicide rates are not that much higher than the rest of the world and that there is little correlation between firearm availability and homicide rates. In order to assess the validity of these claims, international data on firearms and homicide are presented on Tables 7.1 through 7.5. All of the crime data were obtained from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. All of the firearm data were obtained from the Small Arms Survey.
