16 November 2017

Gun Ownership Rates And Well Regulated Militias

Gun Ownership and Conscription


Four of the five countries with the highest civilian gun ownership rates in the world (Yemen, Switzerland, Finland and Cyprus) have mandatory military service for men. So does Austria, which is also in the top ten. In these countries, the link between the existence of a "well regulated militia" and bearing arms is direct and obvious.

Among countries without mandatory military service, the rates of civilian gun ownership per 100 residents are (numbers eyeballed from chart above):

* United States 89
* Saudi Arabia 35
* Iraq 34
* Uruguay 32
* Canada 31

Only four countries in the world without military service have even one-third of the civilian gun ownership rates of the United States.

Gun Ownership and The Death Penalty

There is considerable overlap between the countries with the highest gun ownership rates and those with the most executions per capita (source data available to download here). The raw numbers of executions per country in 2016 are as follows:

1. China 1,000s
2. Nigeria 527
3. Pakistan 360+
4. Bangladesh 245+
5. Egypt 237+
6. Thailand 216
7. Cameroon 160+
8. Iraq 145+
9. India 136
10. Lebanon 126
11. Zambia 101
12. Democratic Republic of the Congo 93+
13. Sri Lanka 79+
14. Viet Nam 63+
15. Indonesia 60+
16. Somalia 60 (Puntland 45; Somaliland 8; and Federal Government of Somalia 7)
17. Algeria 50
18. Kuwait 49
19. Tunisia 44
20. Saudi Arabia 40+
21. Malaysia 36+
22. USA 32
23. Mali 30
24. United Arab Emirates 26
25. Kenya 24+
26. Palestine (State of) 21, Hamas authorities, Gaza
27. Sudan 21+
28. Tanzania 19
29. Ghana 17
30. Jordan 13
31. Niger 11
32. Zimbabwe 8
33. Singapore 7+
34. Morocco/Western Sahara 6
35. Liberia 5+
36. Sierra Leone 5
37. Afghanistan 4+
38. Belarus 4 (Sole European Country to execute anyone in 2016).
39. Qatar 4
40. Barbados 3
41. Laos 3+
42. Myanmar 3+
43. Japan 3
44. Ethiopia 2
45. Maldives 2
46. Taiwan 2
47. Trinidad and Tobago 2
48. Libya 1+
49. Guyana 1
50. Kazakhstan 1
51. Malawi 1
52. Papua New Guinea 1
53. Iran +
54. North Korea +
55. South Sudan +

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