It's not me making the case anyway, Bruce. I'm simply teasing your case apart to see what's there. In the case of Japan, I find your "would have been" certainties very touching. No room for doubts then! You have to climb down from your certainties here if you really want a serious discussion. Let's start here: gun violence deaths in the US per annum, non-suicides, over 12000 per annum. Gun violence deaths in the UK per annum: 26. Ok, so you have a lot more people. Our number rounds up on a population basis to 130 per annum to make the comparison fair. 12000 vs 130. You get to have guns. We don't. Conclusion...?

Here's another I just dug up by accident: more people have been killed by gun violence in the US in the last fifty years than in all the wars in US history.

No need for me to make a case. The figures speak a thousand words.