Canada has far fewer handguns per capita than the USA:

"As we see it, a ban on ordinary Canadians continuing to own handguns is eminently reasonable and ought to be supported by most of us, even in the face of statistics indicating there could be as many as one million of the weapons now in Canada. After all, that statistic can be seen as showing that 30 million Canadians don’t see a need for such easily concealed firearms. If nothing else, the ban would stand as a statement made by a peaceable society. Unlike the much-maligned federal gun registry, such a ban need not involve any costly administration. And, as we understand it, handguns could still be owned by collectors and others so long as they are rendered permanently inoperable."
~ Orangeville Citizen. Orangeville, Ontario, Canada. January 5, 2006. Emphasis added.
http://www.citizen.on.ca/news/2006/0105/Editorial/016.html
http://www.cannabisculture.com/forums/showflat.php?Number=1195031

There is no problem with rifles and shotguns being legal. They are not used in murders nearly as much as easily concealed handguns. The motive for most murders in the USA and in some other nations is arguments:
http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/cfi/cfi110.html and
http://www.google.com/search?q=statistical+abstract+united+states+homicide+motives

Chart below is from:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/graphs/12.htm



"The totalitarian states can do great things, but there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot give the factory-worker a rifle and tell him to take it home and keep it in his bedroom. That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's cottage, is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there."
George Orwell. January 8, 1941 article for the Evening Standard.
http://www.orwelltoday.com/readerriflequote.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell

The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not need wimpy handguns to defend against tyranny. But outraged public opinion may someday effectively regulate into oblivion nearly ALL guns in the USA due to the high number of murders done with handguns due to their easy concealment in public. So the National Rifle Association may be responsible for eventual tyranny in the USA because some of the NRA are Morons that choose to defend handguns, and thereby end up causing rifles to be nearly banned along with handguns.

The average person is not going to risk smuggling a handgun across a border when he/she can buy a rifle or shotgun legally to protect their house. 

Average people smuggle drugs across borders frequently. Far fewer average people smuggle guns across borders. The reason is simple. There is little need nor desire to smuggle handguns across borders. There is HUGE desire for drugs.

When concealed carry of handguns is allowed in places in the USA, the crime rates are hardly effected. Minor variations in crime rates.

In nations where handguns have been effectively banned over a long period of time, and where they allow rifles and/or shotguns, their murder rates are MUCH lower than in the USA.

Home invasion and burglary rates vary greatly all over the world. When rifles and shotguns are also banned then home invasion and burglary rates go up.

It is ineffective to ban handguns in some cities while allowing neighboring areas to have handguns. It only works in whole nations over years. Then there is much less of a problem of gun smuggling.

It is just too much trouble for the average person to smuggle guns across borders. It is easy to smuggle guns from city to city in the same nation. 

When a whole nation bans handguns the lack of handguns greatly lowers the homicide rate. Just because criminals have handguns doesn't translate into a high homicide rate. Most homicides are committed out of momentary rage between non-criminals.

That is why overall the near-banning of handguns in Europe and Canada is working. Most people don't want to go to the trouble required to get an illegal handgun. They can much more easily buy a rifle or shotgun to protect their home, and teargas to put in their pocket to lower their fear while outside their homes.

People try to equate prohibitions of handguns and drugs. But people want drugs for enjoyment mostly. People want handguns mostly out of fear. Totally different motivations.

Motivation is key. It is like the cannabis situation in Holland. Young people can buy cannabis legally, and they don't have to associate with hard drug dealers to do so, and so there is far less likelihood that they will get involved with people who sell heroin. There is little motivation to do so. Even cannabis use is lower in Holland than in the USA because there is no "forbidden fruit" syndrome. Cannabis is just no big deal there.

That is why there is less use of both cannabis and harder drugs in Holland, especially in young people. The whole harm reduction philosophy is openly advocated in Holland. The average age of people using heroin is increasing because younger people for over a generation have had access to legal cannabis, and less motivation to get harder drugs.

So let's compare: In most of Europe people can buy the legal "soft" guns such as rifles and shotguns, rather than the "hard" illegal more-dangerous guns such as handguns. Most people aren't going to deal with international smugglers just to get a handgun.

Plus the murder rate is much lower in Europe due to the fact that handguns have been effectively banned for so long in most of Europe. Fear of murder is not nearly as big in Europe as in the USA.

People in Europe and Canada like having a much lower murder rate than the handgun-happy NRA-ruled USA.

Really think about this. If you wanted to kill some one and get away with it, what weapon would you use? Some people have never thought about this because it is such an unpleasant subject. But killing someone with almost anything other than a handgun will likely be very messy, with a lot of blood. Some blood is bound to get on you or your clothes. How do you make your getaway?

People talk out their ass about the second amendment, defending themselves in the street, etc. but don't think about what actually really happens. Most thieves and muggers and murderers are not going to warn you before they stick a weapon in your face and demand your money or your life.

You aren't going to have time to pull out any weapon. So your concealed handgun is mostly just a fashion accessory to impress your friends and associates. Or to shoot them when you are in an argument and in a temporary rage.

Get real, everybody. Rifles and shotguns serve the original purpose of the Second Amendment which was to defend against tyranny. They are also adequate for stopping home invasions and burglaries.

They were what existed, and what average people could afford, at the time of these quotes:

"Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." ~ James Madison

"Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped." ~ Alexander Hamilton

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretense, raised in the United States." ~ Noah Webster

"No free men shall be debarred the use of arms." ~ Thomas Jefferson

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them." ~ Richard Henry Lee

"The great object is that every man be armed. . . . Everyone who is able may have a gun. . . . Are we at last brought to such a humiliating and debasing degradation that we cannot be trusted with arms for our own defense?" ~ Patrick Henry

"Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments . . . forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition. . . . [The] several kingdoms of Europe . . . are afraid to trust the people with arms." ~ James Madison

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which might be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms." ~ Tench Coxe

Tench Coxe, noted federalist and friend of James Madison, wrote in defense of the proposed Constitution, in the Pennsylvania Gazette of Feb. 20, 1788: "Their swords, and every other terrible instrument of the soldier, are the birth right of an American. ... The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."

IN the year 2000 the National Rifle Association was yet AGAIN calling for more long mandatory minimum prison sentences

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See also: Category:Charts and graphs

USA: Over 7.2 million persons on probation or parole, or incarcerated in jail or prison, at yearend 2006. About 3.2% of the U.S. adult population, or 1 in every 31 adults. [6] [7] [8]

Click here for larger version of the timeline chart with detailed source info. [9] [10]

Click here for variations of this chart, and detailed sourcing. Public-domain charts from November.org: [12]. See also: [13] [14]. Free images. Use anywhere. Edit freely.