I have heard that stabbings, and beatings are not rare at ALL in the UK though. I wonder what the statistics are in comparison to gun crimes... From what I remember, the incidence of fatal stabbings and beatings rose sharply after handguns were banned. Fatal stabbings also, as I recall, were used for a proposal from a member of Parliament seeking to ban knives. IIRC, it was the country’s chefs who raised hell over that proposal!
The figures for the US are very much higher, but then the population is a lot larger as well. I don’t know how it would compare percentage-wise.
Plus, I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think there are as many gangs in Britain - especially not gangs who can walk across the border to get there! ;)
There are many things that come into play here (in the US) when you are discussing gun crimes. As others mentioned the murder rates are much higher in our urban areas, but with the exception of ‘random events’ (robberies gone wrong, etc...) they are almost EXCLUSIVELY limited to gang-bangers killing each other or hitting innocents in the line of fire during their retribution or drug-selling turf wars. And, they really ARE wars!
Another statistic that is included in the US death rates, but NOT accurately are those persons killed during the commission of a crime by armed citizens. Everything gets lumped in together which, IMHO, is NOT fairly representative of what is really going on.
I will echo another poster who mentioned John Lott. His research, IMHO, is unparalleled.
And of course, you are perfectly correct that most violence and murder (in both countries) tends to be restricted to certain areas. Usually urban areas.