The population of the UK is also a LOT smaller than the US. But it could also mean that the folks in the UK aren't very good shots. ;-) How many murders were there overall in the UK last year? Gunshot stats alone don't tell the whole story. I seem to remember hearing a news report a year or so ago about two teenage girls in England who BEAT a woman to death. In the absence of a gun, a person with a murderous intent will find some other way to carry it out. Remember that guy in Japan a couple of months ago who attacked a group of people with a knife?

I'm sure our GUEST Anti-Smoking Crusader can tell us that more people died in the US last year from smoking-related illnesses than by gunshots.

Death is usually tragic anyhow, whether by disease or injury. Why do we like to put so much emphasis on gunshots?

When I took tae kwon do (this was years ago) we were never told not to fight outside the class. What we were told, is that we should never fight to show off, but fighting in defense of yourself, or another who was incapable of defense, was fair game. That was why we were there, after all.