&gt; The problem with these types of comparison is that you are comparing very different populations with very different cultures.<p>The comparison shows that it is possible to have low violent crime rates and low incarceration rates. After seeing that this is possible, I cannot understand why a country like the US would not go after these <i>two</i> goals. I am inclined to suspect that it has something to do with turning the prison system into a private business and the predominance of puritanism in American culture.<p>And let&#x27;s not exaggerate the cultural differences between the US and Europe. We are talking about western democracies, stemming from the same intellectual source (the Enlightenment) and the same genetic source: the US was created by Europeans, and mostly consists to this day of people of European descent (yes, including &quot;hispanics&quot;, as the name implies).<p>&gt; the idea of banning guns to reduce the number of shootings in the US would be defeated by the example of Switzerland<p>The idea that banning guns is a requirement to have a peaceful society is effectively defeated by the Swiss example. It show that private gun ownership cannot be the ultimate cause of the problem.<p>By the way, the graph that is shown somewhere else, comparing incarceration and violent crime rates, shows no correlation between the two. A concept of &quot;eras&quot; has to be introduced to allow one to talk about these two metrics together.