The United States is the gun capitol of the world. We have 89 guns per 100 people. That's privately held guns, add in police and military and the United States is the only country in the world with more guns than people. Second place is Serbia (58 guns per 100 people). Forty percent of American households own guns, the highest in the world. In Japan, only one person in 200 owns a gun.
Hawaii has the lowest percentage of its households owning guns, just ten percent. Montana has the highest, 63 percent of the state's households own guns.
Murders
Honduras has an extraordinary murder rate (thanks drug trade) of 82 murders annually per 100,000 people. Louisiana (thanks Bobby Jindel) is the worst US state but it is still only one-sixth of the Honduras murder rate. The fewest murders are in Japan, only 3.5 murders per one million people. The United States murder rate (4.8 per 100,000 people) is in the middle of the pack.
Do Guns Kill People?
Yes! Two-thirds of all murders are committed by people shooting guns, that rate is pretty consistent throughout the world. Second place (14%) is knives and other pointy things.
Gun deaths collate very closely with gun ownership. The states with the fewest percentage of gun owners - Massachusetts (3.1) and Hawaii (3.6) - also have the lowest rates of gun deaths. Both also benefit from not bordering states with lax gun laws. Montana (17.6) ranks behind only Louisiana (18.0) in the number of gun deaths per 100,000 people.
Growth Business
Kentucky by far has the fastest growing gun trade in the nation. Over an 18 month period (Sept 2010 to Feb 2012), there were 78,703 gun purchases registered in Kentucky per 100,000 population. The fewest was New Jersey, only 1,030.
Random Facts
In the US, 90% of murderers are men as were 77% of the victims. Only 24% of murders are done during the commission of another crime. Forty-one percent are the result of arguments. Murderers most often kill family members (24%) or acquaintances (54%).
Note: Numbers may vary due to dates surveyed.
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