NZ Murder Rate:

1959 was a good year .. an excellent year in fact - as NO ONE was murdered here in New Zealand.

Police have just published a table recording the statistics from 1926 to 2017 and are pleased with the strongly downward trending murder rate for the last 35 years since 1982.

https://www.police.govt.nz/sites/default/files/publications/historic-new-zealand-murder-rates.pdf

- You can view Police comments on these figures here:

http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/new-zealand%E2%80%99s-lowest-murder-rate-decades

Some sad details are that around 75% of homicide victims are Maori.
 - And around 20% of victims are 'ex-partners' .. of whom 75% were females.

I can't comment as I know only what I'm told ..

Facts are interesting things as they often can be used to support conflicting interpretations and opinions.

- The most telling related FACT that I've noted recently is that violent crime in the UK is more than FOUR TIMES HIGHER than in "gun crazed USA".

https://flicense.blogspot.com/2018/08/uk-violence-greater-than-us.html

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VIOLENT CRIME PER 100,000:

UK:                 2,034.
New Zealand: 1,400. <~ That's surprising eh.
USA:                 466.

Correct  - These data suggest Violent crime in New Zealand - while considerably less than UK - is more than THREE TIMES higher than America.

Population Density - especially over-crowding into cities is a huge factor in violent crime.

Note:  Comparison of crime figures from different countries is problematic due to varying definitions & methods of recording.

Perhaps the answer is MORE guns?

Marty K.