No, not THAT bulge! It’s the bulge with the real bang!

That’s the “bulge” we’re talking about!

Do you know that in the United States out of 100 people 90 own guns, making the US the most heavily armed country in the world, a recent survey showed.What about the 10 people who don’t have guns? In all probability, they’re the ones being used for target practice by those who own guns. Poor gun-less guys, all they could do is throw back an expletive! Or may be spit back!

According to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, Americans own 270 million of the world’s 875 million known firearms.

About 4.5 million of the 8 million new guns manufactured worldwide each year are purchased in the United States, it said.

“There is roughly one firearm for every seven people worldwide. Without the United States, though, this drops to about one firearm per 10 people,” it said.

Next to the US in the list of the most heavily armed countries of the world is India. Did this surprise you? Where could they be hiding their guns? In their turbans?

The study said India has an estimated 46 million firearms outside law enforcement and the military, though this represented just four guns per 100 people there.

China, ranked third with 40 million privately held guns, had 3 firearms per 100 people. Oh yes, the Chinese could not be far behind in this matter. Remember, they’re good in putting generous amount of lead in everything – even in the toys and other products they export!

Germany, France, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil and Russia were next in the ranking of country’s overall civilian gun arsenals.

On a per-capita basis, Yemen had the second most heavily armed citizenry behind the United States, with 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, Iraq with 39 and Serbia with 38 (Oh, but Iraq is definitely ahead of them all in terms of the number of suicide bombers!).

France, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Germany were next, each with about 30 guns per 100 people, while many poorer countries often associated with violence ranked much lower. Nigeria, for instance, had just one gun per 100 people.

“Firearms are very unevenly distributed around the world. The image we have of certain regions such as Africa or Latin America being awash with weapons — these images are certainly misleading,” Small Arms Survey director Keith Krause said.

“Weapons ownership may be correlated with rising levels of wealth, and that means we need to think about future demand in parts of the world where economic growth is giving people larger disposable income,” he told a Geneva news conference.

So, the wealthier one country becomes, the more guns it citizens would eventually possess – and to go with that, more senseless mayhem, killings and grief.

I think I’d rather live in a poor country if that’s the way of the world.

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