Jumbo:
I found you statistics from the United Nations concerning the total (estimated) number of guns in various countries including the United States.
Statistics on crime in the United States are kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and can be found on their web site at:
www.fbi.gov
Look for "Uniform Crime Reports."
In particular look at:
www.fbi.gov/ucr/01cius.htm
These are two examples:
Murder Victims1
by Weapon, 1997-2001
Weapon 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
Total 15,837 14,276 13,011 13,230 13,752
Total firearms: 10,729 9,257 8,480 8,661 8,719
Handguns 8,441 7,430 6,658 6,778 6,790
Rifles 638 548 400 411 389
Shotguns 643 633 531 485 497
Other guns 35 16 92 53 58
Firearms, type not stated 972 630 799 934 985
Knives or cutting
instruments 2,055 1,899 1,712 1,782 1,796
Blunt objects (clubs,
hammers, etc.) 724 755 756 617 661
Personal weapons (hands,
fists, feet, etc.)2 1,010 964 885 927 925
Poison 6 6 11 8 10
Explosives 8 10 0 9 4
Fire 140 132 133 134 104
Narcotics 37 35 26 20 34
Drowning 34 28 28 15 23
Strangulation 224 213 190 166 152
Asphyxiation 88 101 106 92 112
Other weapons or
weapons not stated 782 876 684 799 1,212
1 The murder and nonnegligent homicides that occurred as a result of the events of
September 11, 2001, were not included in any murder tables (Tables 2.3-2.15).
See special report, Section V.
2 Pushed is included in personal weapons.
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Table 2.17
Justifiable Homicide
by Weapon, Private Citizen,1 1997-2001
Year Total Total fire- arms Hand- guns Rifles Shot- guns Fire- arms, type not stated Knives or cutting instru- ments Other danger- ous weapons Personal weapons
1997 280 238 197 16 14 11 28 6 8
1998 196 170 150 6 14 0 17 5 4
1999 192 158 137 5 10 6 18 9 7
2000 164 138 123 4 7 4 15 8 3
2001 215 176 136 10 13 17 25 6 8
1 The killing of a felon, during the commission of a felony, by a private citizen.
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Between 1997 to 2001 there were 10,729 murders comitted with firearms. (including justifiable homicides). The U.N. says there are at least 137 million privately own guns in the United States, and that's a low number.
Also notice that since 1997 the number of gun related crimes has been going down, while the total number of guns has been going up.