I don’t know about the others, but with the American West, we also had “lawlessness”. That is, vast spaces with no police force and little regard to the law. (Same as today’s ghettos???) I think that had/has a lot more to do with it than just the presence of weapons.
In more civilized parts of the country where there is the presence of police and a regard to the law and a healthy number of firearms among the populace I’m pretty sure the numbers support a lower crime rate.
If violent crime committed by blacks was omitted from our national crime statistics, the U.S. rate of violent crime would be less than Canada's.
I agree. I just think that those who believe the presence of an armed citizenry in and of itself generates a more peaceful society are wildly off-track.
Afghanistan, for example, has always been a heavily armed society. And it has also for centuries been a society heavily into feuds and vendetta.
Part of the problem in early modern Europe and medieval Japan is the bearing arms was strictly limited to the upper classes. Which meant they developed an elaborate code of politeness among themselves, though it was violated and killing broke out remarkably often. What the arms-bearing classes felt no need to do was be polite to the non-arms-bearing classes.