U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people

[HEMIzygote]

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States has 90 guns for every 100 citizens, making it the most heavily armed society in the world, a report released on Tuesday said.
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U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

"There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people," it said.

India had the world's second-largest civilian gun arsenal, with an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there. China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people.

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country's overall civilian gun arsenals.

On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38.

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.

"Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons -- these images are certainly misleading," Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause said.

"Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income," he told a Geneva news conference.

The report, which relied on government data, surveys and media reports to estimate the size of world arsenals, estimated there were 650 million civilian firearms worldwide, and 225 million held by law enforcement and military forces.

Five years ago, the Small Arms Survey had estimated there were a total of just 640 million firearms globally.

"Civilian holdings of weapons worldwide are much larger than we previously believed," Krause said, attributing the increase largely to better research and more data on weapon distribution networks.

Only about 12 percent of civilian weapons are thought to be registered with authorities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070828/us_ ... dXK7ms0NUE

[Rex B]

Thanks for posting that.

I'm a bit surprised that India has private ownership of firearms.

I'm floored that China has firearms in civilians hands.
How did THAT happen?

[AEA]

I too cannot believe that there are ANY privately owned guns in Mainland China! I am wondering if Taiwan is considered China for the purpose of these statistics?

[rspeir]

I wonder what the ratio would be if you factored out Texans.

[stevie_d_64]

I wonder what the ratio would be if you factored out Texans.

We probably blow the curve everytime...

But it would be neat to break down each individual state and see where we stack up...

[hoss4570]

I wonder what the ratio would be if you factored out Texans.

Yeah, really. Somebody somewhere is doing without, since I have many times over the average number of guns.

[frankie_the_yankee]

Remember that China and India have over 1 billion people each.

That said, I've never heard of either allowing for any significant number of privately owned guns.

And Taiwan is no better.

I'm skeptical of these statistics, at least as applied to Asian countries. I know plenty of people from Asia, and have visited there numerous times. Private gun ownership is practically unknown there.

[Rex B]

You can NEVER factor out a Texan!

[rspeir]

You can NEVER factor out a Texan!

True! If it was only Texas, the ratio would probably be something like 300 guns per 100 people.

[stevie_d_64]

You can NEVER factor out a Texan!

True! If it was only Texas, the ratio would probably be something like 300 guns per 100 people.

That would be like...like...a positive ratio???

kewl!!!

[Paladin]

Awesome article! Thanks for posting!

[age_ranger]

*sniff*...........I'm so proud of all of you..........*snifF*

[Paladin]

As far as the US goes, I would imagine that number is probably low.

I know I would be less than forthcoming if somebody I didn't know wanted to know the details of my gun collection.

I was in Shanghai China in April.

Didn't see many guns there. Most of the police were only visibly armed with a radio.

But the guns I did see were in the hands of private security (some nice looking shotguns).

China is a big place, and some areas have more independence from the central government than others.

[135boomer]

Studies like that are misleading. I would be much more interested in the number of gun owners than the number of guns. There are more than a few in my safe, but there is only one of me.

[seamusTX]

I though red China had strict "gun control," but if you search for "shooting sports China" you will find some interesting items.

- Jim