This is from a newpaper article I read today:
According to a study conducted by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, more than half of the world's 551 million firearms are LEGALLY owned by civilians rather than governments, with fewer than 1 million in the hands of insurgents.
But those 910,000 illegally owned weapons in the hands of rebels---0.2% of the total---are responsible for 1,500 deaths a day worldwide.

I find this interesting because it basically echoes the experience in the US...about .1% of the guns in the US are used in 99% of the crimes.
I wonder how the UN will handle this study?

Those weapons are actually more like .16% percent of the total.

Of course, the UN, a coalition of government representatives, will always desire more power to be in the hands of the government. They will say that these .16% of weapons cause too much destruction and warrant the restriction of every weapon.

radioman

Very interesting.
Hmmmmm No wonder the UN wants guns banned from Civilian ownership.

[b]I wonder how the UN will handle this study?[/b]

By banning them. you know for the children.
oh! this case study is irrelavent to the fact that we peasents must not be armed.

The United Nations was established on Oct. 24, 1945, shortly after the end of WWII. As the war drew to an end, the nations that opposed Germany, Italy and Japan decided that such a war must never happen again. Representatives of these nations met in San Francisco in April 1945 and worked out an organization to help keep peace in the world. This plan was described in a document called the "Charter of the United Nations". In June 1945 50 nations signed the UN Charter. They were the first UN members and since then, more than 100 other nations have joined for a current total of 184 members. Communist China was accepted in 1971.

There is no doubt that it is in the best interest of the UN to have a worldwide ban on privately held firearms. But, and this is a big But, in the US we have the Second Amendment to the Constitution which is a tremendous hurdle to the UN for such a ban.  US citizens should always remember this and let their elected representatives know in regard to  any discussion of citizen arms bans.

And of course Japan will be a lot safer,..... of course we have to watch out for all of those nasty assualt knives with a blade lenght of 6" or more.