I wrote 'Fighting Talk' with tongue in cheek as a British viewer of American television entertainment. Gun laws in the United Kingdom have given the average citizen a somewhat superior self-satisfaction. I felt, therefore, that the subject required some study to affirm my somewhat smug attitude. Here's the end result of those studies.
The statistics given below are each for a hundred thousand of the population of the United States and either Scotland or the United kingdom.
The number of guns in this number of the populations is 89,000 in the USA and 5,500 in the UK.
The firearm-related death for the same populations is 10.3 in the USA and 0.25 in the UK.
Finally the intentional homicide rate in the same populations is 4.7 in the USA and 1.2 in the UK.
The figures for the number of guns surprised me a little. I did not expect the British figure to be zero, but one gun for every 182 people seems a little high. Then again, thinking about shot guns, perhaps not.
The firearm-related death rate was more in line with my supposition, but the intentional homicide ratio gave me pause. It seems that human beings intent on killing someone else will always find a way. Sad, isn't it?