When we think of violent societies, many of us think of places like Iraq, Iran or Bosnia. Therefore many are surprised to learn that, although we have only 5 percent of the world’s population living in the United States, one half of the world’s guns are found here.

And we’re putting those guns to use.

More people are killed by gunfire each month on our peaceful American soil than all the American lives lost in the Iraq war in it’s first three years combined.

And we think the war is “over there.”

Perhaps we can learn from other countries, like Japan, for example, which has strict gun control and experiences only 60 gun murders a year. That’s less than a day’s worth for us. Canada, a country similar to us geographically and socio-economically, has strict gun regulations and 128 deaths per year, 1/250th of the deaths we suffer in the United States.

It should stun us to realize through our gun use we lose the same number of American lives every five weeks as we lost in the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Many people react emotionally to the idea of gun regulation because of mistaken beliefs and fears. Let me address three of these myths today.

Myth 1: The government is trying to take away our guns.

I have not been able to find any legislators who are in favor of taking away Americans’ right to bear arms for the protection of the country, as the Second Amendment states, or to take away a sportsman’s recreation.

I have many friends who are hunters, and most of us would agree that retaining the right to the hunters’ sport is an important freedom. Fortunately, nobody is threatening to stop us from using our guns in our sport or to feed our family.

Legislation that is effective in saving lives is about regulation of non-sport guns.

What I have found many people haven’t thought of is that every illegal gun begins as a legal gun. The most effective way to stop the illegal guns is to regulate the legal ones.

When the Brady Bill went into effect in 1994, more than 23,000 felons and 50 fugitives were exposed and arrested in the first few months. More than 470,000 criminals were arrested in it’s first 10 years. Gun control is one of the best ways we have to keep guns out of the hands of undesirables.

Myth 2: “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

This is like saying “knives don’t cut meat, people cut meat.” Or “Bombs don’t pulverize buildings, people pulverize buildings.” We do realize, don’t we, that most people don’t pulverize buildings without bombs? And in fact, most people don’t pulverize buildings at all?

Some are concerned about the influence of our media in promoting violence. Interestingly though, Canada has the same access to video games, TV and the movies as we do in the United States. Media are not a distinguishing factor in us killing each other. The main difference in societal killing is the availability of guns. Of all American homes, 35 percent have a weapon. Interestingly, we are the only civilized country in the world that promotes handgun ownership.

The data is clear on this: Regardless of the safety measures currently in place, the more guns we have, the more people die from them.

Myth 3: I am safer with a gun than without one.

Although many people cite wanting to own a gun because they believe it provides them with protection, research shows that if we live in a home with a gun, we are three times more likely to die from a gunshot wound than an intruder.

Although people think if they confront armed burglars with a gun it will chase them away, fear more often causes the intruder to pull his own trigger in self-defense, even if he had no intention of using the weapon.

Given Americans own half of the world’s guns, if arming for self-protection worked, the United States would be the safest country in the world. Instead, more Americans die every two years from gunshots inside our own borders than were killed in 16 years of hostile action in Vietnam.

It would seem to our benefit that gun owners and non-gun owners alike can unite to protect the sportsman’s right to shoot, while at the same time protecting a citizen’s right not to be shot. In order to do this, we must believe an American’s right to life is more important than an American’s right to have his gun unregulated.

Our Second Amendment guarantees our freedom to have guns. It is appropriate we acknowledge that the price we pay for this freedom is the loss of 30,000 civilian lives each year.

David Larson, M.S., C.P.C.C., is a licensed psychologist, life coach, and proponent of public safety. He can be reached at www.callthecoach.com.