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Were that true, we would expect Switzerland (3rd highest number of guns per capita in the world) to have a higher murder rate than the UK (82nd in guns per capita), but it does not. This lack of correlation continues with other European countries: Serbia and Sweden have a fair number of guns, but not much murder, while Ukraine and Lithuania have few guns, but some of the highest murder rates in Europe.

If you're about to point out that social, economic and political conditions are very different in Switzerland and Ukraine, you're probably on to something. Murder rates of various countries do correlate with several measures of social, economic and political stability, but not with gun ownership.



Switzerland has guns, but no bullets. So you can probably give up guns or bullets and get gun safety - not that that's a very startling conclusion.

Secondly the fact that A=>B doesn't mean that also C=>B so you should expect high B when either A or C is true.

(Read => as implies, causes or correlates with - it doesn't really matter).


That isn't true. You're probably thinking of the change to ammunition issued by the army to members of the militia (a large fraction of the population) for civil defense. It is no longer standard practice to issue ammunition to keep at home.

Buying ammunition from a gun store appears to be an option for anyone with any of several types of gun license.




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