Boomer - Go to the link you posted, find the citation credited with the US' fireams death rate. it's this
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/homicide.htm
Click on that link, and you'll find it DOES show a 3.7 / 100,000 rate for firearm death, HOWEVER it includes ALL deaths, suicides and accidents included for 2009 . YOUR LINK says the 3.7/100,000 does NOT include suicides and accidents - when referring to the original source they derived their "facts" from, we see that is a lie. Steve
The report quotes "
Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms . .(*U01.4,X93–X95) 11,493" (page 39)
So, 11,493 out of a population of 307,006,550 (page 107) that is 3.74 per 100,000 population.
That EXCLUDES "
Intentional self-harm (suicide) by discharge of firearms. . . (X72–X74) 18,735" and "
Accidental discharge of firearms. . (W32–W34) 554" which are detailed separately on page 39.
So, not a lie.
Last year (April 2011 to March 2012) England and Wales had a
TOTAL Homicide figure of 551 for our 56.1 million population.
Just less than 1 per 100,000 and just over HALF of what it was 10 years ago.
As for the violent crime figures we had 1.9 million reports of violent crimes in the same time period.
For the USA for 2011 is is estimated to be 1.2 million but then ya have 5 times England & Wales population which makes the UK look like fist-fight central.
However, our Stats include minor assaults such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm as an example.
Figures like this are far harder to compare because both countries collect and measure in totally different ways.
Violent crime did increase in the UK in the 60's to 90's period by between 2-3% per year.
Since 2000 this has been decreasing quite dramatically every year, the same as it has in the USA.
One theory is that eliminating lead from gasoline has caused this decrease. Lead is known to cause violent behaviour.
Y'all banned leaded gas way before we did.