Another Gun Control Study

[The Wizard]

The only thing that the article in the OP shows decisively is that the murder rate has to do with much more than the legality of firearms. It emphatically does not show that making guns freely available is A-OK, or that widespread gun ownership has nothing to do with the murder rate.

Very interesting in this regard is an interview Steven Pinker (whom you may know as the guy who published a very successful book which, IMHO, errs on the side of excessive liberal optimism) took of one of my former professors, Pieter Spierenburg. The latter's a historical crimonologist and sociologist who studies the long-term decline of violent crime since the late Middle Ages. It's interesting to note that there's been a slight increase in the rate of violent crime in Western societies since the 1960s, the first rise since the 1400s. A condition of postmodernity?

EDIT: Important, but forgot to mention that there's a long statement on the USA, at 15:00 in the interview recording.