> Nowl, there simply are not orders of magnitude
>differences in social structure, income distribution, racism,
>or what have you, between the US and the rest of the
>world. What there is an order of magnitude difference
>in is the sheer availability of guns, 240 million by the
>last count. It is also true that we have a frontier legacy
>of guns and that we are the only nation that allows people
>to own guns without having a license. I suggest that
>these facts rather overwhelm everything else, thank you.
But why are guns so available? Isn't this like the question of why some formerly socialist countries were able to "reform" more than others?
Doug