i think that to cite the america is tad misleading, in washington dc last year there were 147 murders that is from a population of 700,000, in the uk there were 736 murders last year. if the murder rate in the uk was the same as washington per head of population then the murder rate in the uk would be around 63000 per year, the murder rate in washington is 857 times uk murder rates,
Or looking at it from another point.....I'm speaking only of the approximate figures of LEGAL guns:-
The USA has a population of about 320 million........The UK has a population of about 67 million.
The USA has a {legal} arsenal of about 300 million guns.........The UK has a {legal} arsenal of about 1.75 million guns.
This equates to just under one gun per person in the US. Not everyone in the US owns a gun {believe it or not} a lot don't so it goes without saying a lot of people stock pile weaponry, apparently less than 5% of the US population own almost 90% of the guns in America, in fact out of ALL the firearms in the world, the Americans own 40% of them,this is why when perpetrators of these mass shootings homes are raided they fined an arsenal of weapons.
The UK on the other hand has far less legal guns, out of the 1.75 million at least 1.3 million are shotguns and these are restricted to mainly farmers and gun clubs i.e. clay pigeon grouse shoots etc. There are far fewer legal guns per head of population than the states. Which obviously means it's a lot easier to lay your hands on a gun {and kill} in the US than the UK.
So if you make a guess as to how many ILLEGAL guns there are out on the streets I would say that in % terms the UK would have more illegal firearms on our streets than the US as in the US you can "borrow" someones gun almost like borrowing a bike
As for "shoot to kill" O.C. as I have said finding the time to wound is usually the fantasy of films, there are many instances on you tube showing someone suddenly drawing down on a police officer and the officer has a split second to react, this leads to a hail of gunfire in which 20 rounds may be loosed off within say 6 - 8 seconds and not always in daylight. I believe most police officers in the US have been trained to "Keep firing till the armed perpetrator is subdued" this to me means shoot him/her till he/she stops firing back, I call that sound advice.
It makes me mad to see family members of the dead perpetrator outside court talking to the media and saying things like "Yes ok he did rob a bank and shoot the guard, and high jacked a car with a woman with a child in the back seat and yes when he crashed into another car at a crossing and jumped out of the car brandishing a gun at the police that was no reason to shoot him".