Some say Population, others say Crime, a few say racial tension and how many are homicides in ethnic communities...of if your Michael Moore you have a long winded crap a film trying to disect it and end up with some horrid mess college kids and his fans masterbate to as truth...
Thing is...no one is really sure. Stat wise crime and homicide have gone down actually...reporting on said crime has risen. So that does help create a mountain out of a molehole at times...but ultimately you have a nation that is made up of " Hyphened Americans". The rest of the world sees Americans as well Americans...in the states if your not white well your "insert ethnicity" - American. It's usually not done maliciously...but it is incredibly stupid.
Little seperations like that build up...and unlike nearly each country you mentioned the U.S. is either bigger, more populated, or has a diversity level at least 5 times higher...In terms of Canada though...
I mean I love Canada and all...but it's just not the states...it's like Vanilla ice cream...it's good, safe, goes well with many things...but it's not all that bold. I always feel weird up there...like something is missing...it just feels.."off"
It's missing that explosive spark the U.S. has...sure we off each other now and again...but it's usually cops shotting minorities anyhow...factor that out and you'd have a murder rate on par with other nations of the same size. :P
The U.S. is usually put at the top of the heap even though not every nation releases such statistics. Plus you gotta factor in the kinds of crime you see in the states...street gangs and crime syndicates alone are a big factor. Unlike their European counterparts...they're much more prone to using "gun related violence". At least in terms of the countries you listed.
Here's the preliminary stats for
2004
I'm all for shipping L.A. Street Gangs to Canada though...hell I'll charter the first bus...they can send us...I dunno...more hockey teams.
The countries you listed simply don't have the ultra dense urban hellholes like L.A. and NYC either...I love em to death and all but even as bad as things have got in parts of Ireland it at least has areas of the nation that don't try to send itself to a blood filled oblivion...the U.S....not so much...with Murder capitals like New Orleans, D.C, Atlanta, and Detroit sporting over 100 murders a year...things get kinda bloody.
Though really a good chunk is in L.A. and NYC...so really it's their fault.
It's not so much the number of guns it's the need to use them...and if you're in certain trades in the U.S. you need them....regularly.
Yet given the population size of even those urban bloodbath zones...it's not THAT bad...what IS bad is they seem to occur in only certain areas that just happen to have the lowest number of cops on patrol and piss poor governmet support from the city to federal level.
I say the cities with low murder rates take some of the load off those with over 50....I think Berkeley, CA would make a fine home for the nearly 20,000 Asian street gang members L.A. has...it's in state AND it's a progressive minded city.
They'll take em right people? It's all about spreading the love right?