You can't trust any of those figures don't forget in 1997 (and again in 2010) & also different forces often have different "policies" on recording, we got a new government who then changed lots of reporting & recording rules. Many things that are not serious assaults are now being recorded as such. Government figures like the police crime reports are notorious for their bias. Unfortunately as I'm sure you know when you have political parties using such things to point score & set agendas you'll never get reliable figures. Probably the lack of attacks on schools is because it promptly caused government to ensure schools no longer have open doors & you now have to be buzzed in, that wasn't as prevalent back then. There's probably a bit of everything in it along with socioeconomic factors too.
If you change the data from "violent crime" which is a bit woolly to homicides then in 2012 the US had 14,827 compared to 653 in the UK. there are maybe x5 of them to us so by my somewhat shaky maths that would still leave us with a homicide rate of 22% of theirs. We may have more violent crime and that is probably because a fight or an assault in the UK may lead to a bit of fisticuffs but is hugely unlikely to result in someone being shot ergo you are more likely to take a swing at someone safe in the knowledge that they are probably not going to shoot you so there is a fairly obvious level of deterrence with the US system at an intuitive level. However when things do kick off over there it can get very bloody very quickly and as others have posted giving automatic weapons to pretty much anyone capable of signing for them is no way to keep the streets safe. What kind of logic allows 16 year olds to carry M-16s? Absolutely mental. Sadly there is no way that the US can or will change as the sort of person who would be willing to relinquish their arsenal is not the sort of person you really ought to be worrying about for as long as there are nutters out there with weaponry I can totally understand normal decent people wanting to have a gun in their home to protect their families. Personally I don't buy the military-industrial conspiracy theory I just think that now that the genie is out of the bottle people act in what they perceive to be the best interests of themselves and their families.
I think you have to look at the USA, as a country that grew out of firearms development. Most of the innovations were developed there in the late second half of the 19th century. It was the gun that won the civil war, conquered the west, killed all the native americans buffalo and passenger pigeon. They are insecure without them. Whatever it is, I can't see the 'Right to bear arms' ever being removed from their constitution.
I agree, however the right to have an automatic weapon surly must have some sort on controls. Maybe we should send all the ones that want to commit suicide to act as body guards for everyone. They won't mind getting shot. Seriously though firing ranges are great fun, but America needs some control as at the moment: The streets run red with the piles of dead, To have a gun to protect them they said, While politicians argue about people's rights, The dying bodies are the ones that blight, America, the land of the free Another senseless murder.... ....in the land of the free...
