For those uncomfortable with anything short of American exceptionalism, we are #1 among countries with population over 100 mil. Take that China and India!

I'm not familiar with the statistics on how many violent crimes are committed with guns as opposed to knives, but I *can* tell you this: If I were on one side of Main Street and a violent criminal was on the other side, intent on killing me, I think I would be more likely to survive if his weapon was a knife than if his weapon was a gun.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not a big fan of using knives as weapons, and I'm certainly not a ballistics expert, but I just have this intuitive sense that gun violence is more likely to result in fatalities than knife violence.

The arrogant “we have bigger malls than your countries” syndrome also explains European recalcitrance at NATO and in other international venues, in great part.

It's mostly a humorous observation, although comparing a continental superpower with Monaco is rather silly methodologically. Monaco, Luxembourg, and the rest are highly advanced societies and we come to diplomatic summits as equals. But we're not comparable in terms of the complexity of border security, law enforcement, and so forth.

Most other prosperous, stable countries see a country awash in guns as indicative of a highly belligerent, violent, *unstable* culture.

It usually is, as that mostly describes 3rd World countries with serious law and order problems. In the United States and Australia, though, the gun culture exists apart from criminality. No doubt, it also means that violent crimes are committed with guns rather than knives.

LOL, James. I think your phrase "in the American context," is precisely the point. Most other prosperous, stable countries see a country awash in guns as indicative of a highly belligerent, violent, *unstable* culture.

God forbid anyone suggests ever that the US is number two or even number 22. Nationaist fervor overrides all levelheadedness. America is bigger, biggest, best! McQ's snark says it all, unfortunately.

James, I'd say that's more relevant to reactions over this study than ignorance or understanding of the study's underpinnings. The arrogant "we have bigger malls than your countries" syndrome also explains European recalcitrance at NATO and in other international venues, in great part. You might want to mention that to your boss.

Regards, C

You know when the last shooting at a UK school was? 1996. A mall? Never.

As per Wikipedia:

Before the 1997 ban, handguns were only held by 0.1% of the population,[25] and while the number of crimes involving firearms in England and Wales increased from 13,874 in 1998/99 to 24,070 in 2002/03, they remained relatively static at 24,094 in 2003/04, and have since fallen to 21,521 in 2005/06.

Since 1998, the number of people injured by firearms in England and Wales increased by 110%,[28] from 2,378 in 1998/99 to 5,001 in 2005/06.

Gun crime not only exists in the UK, it has increased due to the "decrease" in available guns.

So how does a country with such a rampant rise in crime rate as more stable than the US?

By the way, I heard that Liechtenstein was a virtual hell-hole: Muggings, drugs, little people, overcrowding, class-warfare, feelings of inadequacy, no where to dump garbage etc. How do they survive without repeated stage performances of "Wizard of Oz"?

Well lets get the politicians on THAT to rectify, and raise our ranking!

The Open Borders lobby is lowering our respectability world-wide! Am I the only person who see's that!

:-P

Isn’t it more significant that there’s so much emotion expressed from Americans at being ranked “only” 22nd than that the rankings really show the US as a very stable nation?

The reaction reflects a lack of understanding of the data. Furthering the understanding, then, is more important than the underlying ignorance.

You know when the last shooting at a UK school was? 1996. A mall? Never.

Presumably, though, there have been stabbings? Not to mention home-grown Islamist terrorist attacks?

Indeed, Joyce L Malcolm wrote for BBC in 2003, "According to a recent UN study, England and Wales have the highest crime rate and worst record for "very serious" offences of the 18 industrial countries surveyed."

Old stereotypes die hard and the vision of Britain as a peaceable kingdom, America as "the wild west culture on the other side of the Atlantic" is out of date. It is true that in contrast to Britain's tight gun restrictions, half of American households have firearms, and 33 states now permit law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons.

But despite, or because, of this, violent crime in America has been plummeting for 10 consecutive years, even as British violence has been rising. By 1995 English rates of violent crime were already far higher than America's for every major violent crime except murder and rape.

You are now six times more likely to be mugged in London than New York. Why? Because as common law appreciated, not only does an armed individual have the ability to protect himself or herself but criminals are less likely to attack them. They help keep the peace. A study found American burglars fear armed home-owners more than the police. As a result burglaries are much rarer and only 13% occur when people are at home, in contrast to 53% in England.

Much is made of the higher American rate for murder. That is true and has been for some time. But as the Office of Health Economics in London found, not weapons availability, but "particular cultural factors" are to blame. A study comparing New York and London over 200 years found the New York homicide rate consistently five times the London rate, although for most of that period residents of both cities had unrestricted access to firearms.

When guns were available in England they were seldom used in crime. A government study for 1890-1892 found an average of one handgun homicide a year in a population of 30 million. But murder rates for both countries are now changing. In 1981 the American rate was 8.7 times the English rate, in 1995 it was 5.7 times the English rate, and by last year it was 3.5 times. With American rates described as "in startling free-fall" and British rates as of October 2002 the highest for 100 years the two are on a path to converge.

The comparative rates are also apparently somewhat skewed by different reporting methodologies.