Compared to other industrialized nations, the United States has a higher per capita rate of fatalities due to firearm violence. In 2000, firearms killed 8,493 Americans, out of a population of over 270 million. By comparison, Great Britain, which has a population of 59.5 million, has averaged fiftytwo firearms-related homicides per year since 1997. Australia—a nation of 19 million—reported sixty-five firearms-related homicides in 1999. Japan, with a population of 126 million, had twenty-two firearms-related murders in 1997. Even when these numbers are adjusted for differences in population sizes, it is obvious that the rates of gun violence in America dramatically exceed those in other developed nations.

Gun control supporters maintain that the United States has significantly higher rates of gun violence because its gun control measures are not as strong as those found in Australia, Great Britain, and Japan. The United States has implemented some gun control laws, most notably the Brady Bill...