NationMaster - Murders with firearms (most recent) by country

Rank	Countries	Amount (top to bottom)
#1	South Africa:	31,918
#2	Colombia:	21,898
#3	Thailand:	20,032
#4	United States:	8,259
#5	Mexico:	3,589
#6	Zimbabwe:	598
#7	Germany:	384
#8	Belarus:	331
#9	Czech Republic:	213
#10	Ukraine:	173
#11	Poland:	166
#12	Canada:	165
#13	Costa Rica:	126
#14	Slovakia:	117
#15	Spain:	97
#16	Uruguay:	84
#17	Portugal:	84
#18	Lithuania:	83
#19	Bulgaria:	63
#20	United Kingdom:	62
#21	Australia:	59
#22	Hungary:	44
#23	Switzerland:	40
#24	Latvia:	30
#25	Macedonia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of:	26
#26	Estonia:	21
#27	Moldova:	20
#28	Azerbaijan:	18
#29	Denmark:	14
#30	Slovenia:	12
#31	Ireland:	12
#32	New Zealand:	7
	Total:	88,745
	Weighted average:	2,773.3

DEFINITION: Total recorded intentional homicides committed with a firearm. Crime statistics are often better indicators of prevalence of law enforcement and willingness to report crime, than actual prevalence.

SOURCE: Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention)

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View Stat: Crime > Violent crime on StateMaster (US states)
View Stat: Crime > Property crime total on StateMaster (US states)
View Stat: Government > Gun Laws > Prohibited firearms on StateMaster (US states)
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COMMENTARY

Aonghas Crowe
15th October 2005

Many Americans, when it comes to their beloved guns, gleefully throw all logic out the window. It boggles my mind how anyone can believe that keeping an armed weapon in their home will make them safer.

I've read that for every intruder shot dead by an armed homeowner, eighteen people use guns to commit suicide. So much for self-protection! A few months ago while watching a documentary on a trauma unit at a hospital in Florida, the ER doctor interviewed commented that most of the people he was treating for gunshot wounds had the holes put into them by someone they knew, namely, angry husbands, jealous girlfriends, drunk neighbors, and so on.

However anecdotal these may be, it remains an indisputable fact that countries which restrict private ownership of firearms also suffer the lowest number of gun-related deaths.

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Crime Statistics > Murders with firearms (most recent) by country

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