When you pry them from our cold dead hands

How the rest of the world sees US gun laws

A sure fire way to confuse a visitor from another country is start a discussion about United States gun control laws. They will most likely go through several stage of before giving up understanding our laws. First is confusion, they will either not understand what is meant by "federalism" or will not understand the politics surrounding gun control legislation (try explaining the gun show loophole)/ Next is denial. The individual will refuse to believe that the US has little to no gun regulation and that many states are working to loosen regulations. Then there will be comprehension of the fact that the US does not have any gun control as such. Finally there will be anger/condescension about how ridiculous the entire situation is.

For Americans this may seem a little odd. This is because we are used to living in a nation that has a few gun regulations and those that do exist are patchwork at best. Part of the problem is the federal system, whereby the national government has little ability to regulate commerce within states. States are thereby allowed to change their laws regulating gun purchases and permits to laughably low standards. This in turn negates gun control efforts in nearby states. Most nations in the developed world do not have a federal model, and those that do have a much stronger central government. Additionally confusion comes from the fact that the United States is the only developed nation that does not require individual licensing before purchasing firearms. Furthermore we are the only developed nation that does not register and keep track of firearms.

This has led to incredibly high levels of gun deaths in the United States relative to the rest of the OECD. The United States is an extreme outlier. Beyond that however this data makes a strong case for gun regulation and control. The graph clearly shows a correlation between higher gun ownership per capita and higher number of gun deaths. This holds true domestically in the United States, several studies have shown clear links between gun ownership and homicide rates. There is also strong evidence that gun control reduces the number of gun deaths.

From the outside the lack of gun control in the US makes no sense. Not only are we unique in our lack of controls, we are also unique in ignoring the data on our mistake.