OK, is this really an issue?

[kandrathe]

Sorry, but this is exactly why getting into a debate over this issue is futile. The gun control advocates always point to the guns, not the source of the violence. My point simply was that you have not solved your violence problem. I agree, the US has a bigger violence problem, and for over 200 years has always has had a bigger violence problem than Europe.

Reading the newspaper of my medium sized city, with below average per capita murder rate, here are my observations; Murders can be catagorized in three broad categories; Familiar, gang(incl. drugs/crime) related, and random. By far the most are accounted for by gang/drug turf wars, or domestic violence, and consequently these are the ones society can do something about. There are very few random, serial killer type psycho murders but these grab all the headlines. There is a direct correlation between murder rate and population density, so lumping the entire US into one ball combines the extremely high rates of Chicago, New York and LA with little places like Des Moines Iowa, or Milwaukee.

Guns are most convenient for killing, but removing them will not address the causes of killing.