Map shows high rate of U.S. gun ownership; nation home to as high as 50% of civilian owned guns

Mass shootings in Colorado and California have once again opened up the debate about access to firearms, with critics calling for stricter gun control and gun advocates pointing to the Second Amendment and their right to bear arms. A map created by The Washington Post using information from the 2007 Small Arms Survey shows that the U.S. is the gun capital of the world, with an average of 88 guns per every 100 people, Ana Swanson reports for the Post.

"The U.S. has less than 5 percent of the world's population, yet it's home to between a third and a half of the world's civilian-owned guns, according to that data," Swanson writes. "The takeaway is that high levels of gun ownership aren't the sole cause of gun-related deaths around the world—countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Swaziland see a horrific number of gun deaths, despite having only slightly more guns than Japan. But in rich countries, having low levels of gun ownership does seem to be an effective way to prevent people from being killed by guns." (Post map)