In Great Britain, they have around 700-800 murders per year, around half of them committed with a knife. Here’s the breakdown in Scotland, where they tend to stab each other.

Scotland Murder Stats

Starting with the Pistols Act of 1903, and ending with the near total ban of handguns in 1997, legislation in Britain has had the desired effect of reducing shooting deaths to nearly zero. However, they’ve just been replaced with stabbing deaths, which is no consolation to anyone.

The charts above show how a century of gun control didn’t end violence, it only ended gun violence. Looking at Britain, we get a glimpse of what violence in the United States might look like if guns were absent. Rather than being a post-gun Utopia, the dynamic of violence might more closely resemble the pre-gun Middle Ages.

Before guns, the world belonged to the young, strong, men. After guns, the weak and the old and have been able to assert themselves on equal ground with even the largest and strongest. Eliminating guns from a civilized society seems to eliminate civilization from society, since once again the Law of the Jungle becomes the law of the land.

Taking away guns from everyone (even criminals), makes the dynamic of violence entirely unfair, tilting the tables in favor of the typically young, male assailants and away from older, weaker victims trying to defend themselves. In a knife or fist fight, young strong males clearly have every advantage; men are typically 2 to 4 times stronger than women of the same age.

It is hard to tell a middle-aged, 90 pound woman that she’s perfectly safe now that the thugs are only carrying knives.