But when confronted with the extraordinary rates of U.S. gun violence, it seems America's frontier past is still very much a part of its present. In the land of Crocodile Dundee, one cannot buy a gun for self-defense. But in the United States, roughly half the 65 million handguns in private hands are owned by Americans who want to protect themselves from the millions of other pistol-packing Americans. In the United States, they are somehow comfortable with the idea that they may shoot someone. Some 270 million Americans collectively own an estimated 200 to 250 million firearms.
Half are suicides.
It makes common sense. If you have easy access to a flood of dangerous products, there are going to be a lot of injuries from that product. But Paul Blackman, research director for the National Rifle Association, says his studies indicate there is no significant association between gun ownership levels and the overall homicide rate. Even if you did away with all the guns, we would still have more violent crime than pretty much any developed country. And the American melting pot is full of ingredients that don't always mix well, either.