Venezuela (see other FR thread) has strict gun control, and they have a very high rate of murders; Mexico ditto, and look at them!
Japan is a stratified society in which the peasants were beaten down so hard, so long, that they've never formed a conception of "up".
Japan might have only had 11 gun murders in 2008, but the total murder rate was 100x as large, if the 2009 murder rate of 1097 is any indication.