The data provided clearly does NOT support Lott’s more guns means less crime line of argumentation.

“Team Colors” is hitting the nail on the head.

If anything, the charts contradict this thesis by showing that more guns does not always mean less crime. At most, the data seems to suggest the USA is an exception.

Now, it should be noted to everybody that UN data is notoriously flawed and using their data comes with risk of professional embarrassment from the get-go. The UN relies on self reporting by states, and most states are not as forthcoming with stats like the USA.

Take China. They are a huge player demographically but they notoriously under-report to the rest of the world. Heck, official numbers in China was until very recently that were exactly zero homosexuals there, that there are no cases of aids, and that hospitals don’t recycle needles.

Also, any country with governance problems (like corruption, lack of rule of law, fragile state syndrome, i.e. most poor developing countries) don’t even have functioning bureaucracies to take a reliable census, let alone report credible criminal data.

Using UN data is a quick way to get into trouble. Using data from the Small Arms Survey is not much better.

America has a homicide rate of 5 per 100k. Most nations with gun control have 1 or less. 67% of all homicides in America are committed by gun, whereas most countries with gun control have guns used in less than 30% of homicides.

This is pathetic, hamfisted stat manipulation, and anyone involved in its creation or proliferation is disgusting.

I would also point out that Australia, W. Europe and Chili have lower gun ownership rates and comparable homicide rates to the US and Canada.

I think we need more info.

Point 2: I’m not even sure the map actually shows the correlation that’s claimed. China, India, Japan, and most of southern Asia (which combined accounts for about half of the world’s population) shows a correlation between low gun ownership and low homicide rate. Various other places (Mexico, South Africa, portions of South America) show correlation between high ownership and high crime. At best, the claimed inverse correlation between gun and homicides is a weak one.

Point 3: It’s an interesting map, which shows that murder (or more broadly, crime) is a really complicated issue with lots of factors.