Statistics: National Murder Rate vs. Gun Ownership Rate. The Numbers Are Not What You Think!

Don't get me wrong. This, in and of itself, doesn't prove anything. One blogger attempted to show that the seven countries with the highest gun ownership rate had a murder rate of 1.2/100k while the nine with the lowest gun ownership had a rate of 4.4. However, I won't go that far. What it does show is that there are other more important factors that affect a country's national homicide rate than gun ownership, as demonstrated by the strong outliers of Russia and Luxembourg (which have the lowest and third lowest overall ownership rates). All other murder rates encompass a rather small range, while the range of percent of the populations of those countries that own guns is wide. This, by itself, could not prove that more guns equals fewer murders, but it definitely shows that the notion that more guns equals more murders is not a true statistical inference. In case you're curious about the original article, it came from the New York Times here; the study can be found here.

However, what I do find amusing is that if it numbers did show less gun ownership lead to a lower murder rate, every gun control activist in the country would be sharing this graphic far and wide.