Around world, gun rules, and results, vary wildly
OOI, Japan (AP) -- After a tragedy like the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, it's a statistic that is always trotted out. Compared to just about anywhere else with a stable, developed government - and many countries without even that - the more than 11,000 gun-related killings each year in the United States are simply off the charts.
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In this country, guns are few and far between. And so is gun violence. Guns were used in only seven murders in Japan - a nation of about 130 million - in all of 2011, the most recent year for official statistics. According to police, more people - nine - were murdered with scissors.
Though its gun ownership rates are tiny compared to the United States, Japan has more than 120,000 registered gun owners and more than 400,000 registered firearms. So why is there so little gun violence?
"We have a very different way of looking at guns in Japan than people in the United States," said Tsutomu Uchida, who runs the Kanagawa Ohi Shooting Range, an Olympic-style training center for rifle enthusiasts. "In the U.S., people believe they have a right to own a gun. In Japan, we don't have that right. So our point of departure is completely different."
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