An interesting interview in the latest New Scientist magazine. 28 September 2013, page 30.
Professor Garen Wintermute in a professor of emergency medicine and director of the Violence Prevention Research Program, at the University of California.
He makes a lot of interesting points about guns in the USA. The following facts are from his interview.
Guns cost 30,000 lives each year in the USA, about the same as car accident deaths. It appears there is a major effort inside the American government to avoid learning the truth about this problem. Research into motor vehicle accident deaths is $ 4 million per year, and into gun deaths is only $ 200,000. Prof Wintermute says this is a conscious and deliberate policy.
With so little research, Americans do not even know the major rsk factors, or the best ways to lower the death toll. Statistics are sparse.
There are a few other points too, which I will raise if the discussion makes them relevant.