You posted
this website as a reference, and also posted the below:
[
The meme said "there are over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the U.K.," compared to "466 violent crimes per 100,000" in the United States. Our preliminary attempt to make an apples-to-apples comparison shows a much smaller difference in violent crime rates between the two countries, but criminologists say differences in how the statistics are collected make it impossible to produce a truly valid comparison. We rate the claim False.
Okay? Now, addressing the site you DID link to, that was really interesting. Sounds bad for England, right? But here's the thing: different nations define and report violence in different ways, as Politifact's article makes clear. In other words, your article is not the be-all and end-all of the issue. Besides, there's another way to get to the answer. You see, not all violent crime is reported to the police in any nation, but in first-world nations,
homicides are almost always reported, and as such is a much more reliable metric...and so the homicide rate would almost always be a more accurate measure of the violence of a society. The
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime receives and collates data from all UN countries, and according to the data they received on homicides, the UK has a rate of 0.92 homicides per 100,000 people. America, on the other hand, has a homicide rat of 4.88 per 100,000 people, a homicide rate over
five times that of the UK.
The debate over gun control in the U.S. heated up after the worst mass shooting in American history this week, when a gunman fatally shot 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando before police killed him.
After a mass shooting at a school in 1996, the British government pursued legislative bans on assault rifles and handguns and tightened background checks for other types of firearms. As of 2013, a total of 200,000 guns and 700 tons of ammunition were taken off British streets. Military-style weapons and most handguns were banned, the Washington Post reported.
Gun ownership in the U.K. is far lower than in the U.S. as well. On average, Britain has 6.5 guns per 100 people, compared to America, which has 101 guns per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey.[/I]
Far fewer firearms among the populace, far fewer homicides. That's the way it is, all over the world. Heinlein was wrong - an armed society is not a polite society.