There are no murders in my county and surrounding counties, yet most households are armed, concealed carry etc. Must be your people are defective.
The US really is two countries. One, a white, largely european, Christian country of generally responsible people. The other is a largely black or hispanic underclass that has been encouraged by government policy to live dysfunctional, irresponsible lives characterized by soaring percentages of out of wedlock births, single parenting(if you can even call it parenting), functional illiteracy, an aversion to legitimate employment and high degrees of gang activity and crime. I am quite confident the data on the first America compares favorably with any european country. The data from the second is more reflective of africa or latin america. Unfortunately, the policy of our government and policy elites is to facilitate the growth of the second america while making life as difficult as possible for the first.
and lets not get distracted... regardless of the times guns are used by criminals or used to protect oneself from criminals... the reason the founders stated the citizens shall have the right to bare arms was to protect their liberty from big govt.
Last FBI data I saw estimated that about 75% of all gun homicides (85% in urban areas) are drug/gang related.
While we're on this subject... The teacher shooting in Nevada, while most tragic, does hold one lesson for us: it's not enough to merely have a gun on you, you need to have it in hand at all times, so the other guy can't get "the drop" on you. Teachers should be pointing with their gun, not a laser pointer. Teacher: "Who has the answer?" Timmy: raises hand. Teacher: pointing (with gun), "Yes, Timmy?" Timmy: craps pants.
American kids are tougher, and she's not ready in any case. Teacher: (fingers twitching over sidearm) "I have a question." Student: (fingers twitching over sidearm) "I may know the answer." Teacher: "Draw!"
Exactly right. Yet another reason why the socialists on this site fail every time when they like to draw comparisons to some Scandanavian country in support of whatever new policy they are advocating.