I don't know about the ideal set of laws for firearms, but I was shaken when i laid eyes on the statistics, compiled by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, only a couple months old, where not only is the US the only G8 member that ranks in the top 20 nations for gun deaths, but of the three categories used in the statistical chart, namely firearm violence, firearm suicide and firearm accident, the US percentage on firearm suicides, dwarfs every single one of the other top 19 nations, by a wide margin.

In fact, the US even outweighed Uruguay, the only other nation where firearm suicides counted for more deaths than the firearm violence; firearm violence being the top death causation in the case for the other 18 top gun death nations in the world.

The ratio between firearm suicides to firearm violence in the US is 7.7 to 4.4, as outlined by the study done by the Institute mentioned. (see GUNS IN AMERICA: OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FIREARMS IN 5 CHARTS)

What this boils down to is that for every 1 person that causes death of someone else using a firearm, there are 1.75 persons causing their own death, using a firearm in the USA. Very very sad.