Honestly I think most countries are probably more violent per capita than the US- we just have insane amounts of reporting and a strange fascination with dirty laundry. Different countries view “crime” differently that we do also- I watched a man strike his wife in Kuwait and no one gave it a second look. In countries where little value is placed on life, whether due to high health mortality rates or constant war, opinions will be far different than they are here also. As an example, our troops reluctance to shoot women and children in Iraq even when they are clearly a threat while the bad guys have no qualms about standing in a group of school children and opening up on a US patrol (often shooting the kids down themselves in the process). Suicide bombings are another example.
And just to mess with our friends across the pond who fancy themselves more enlightened- according to the UN, Scotland is the most violent country:
“The study found that, excluding murder, Scots were almost three times as likely to be assaulted as Americans.”
“The study, based on telephone interviews conducted between 1991 and 2000, said 3% of people in Scotland had suffered an assault, while the figure for England and Wales was second highest at 2.8%.
Both Australia and New Zealand had the next highest proportion of assaults among their population at 2.4%, exactly double the level reported for the United States.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4257966.stm
and here's one for South Africa
http://english.people.com.cn/200211/18/eng20021118_106971.shtml
Incidentally, almost all of the people I've met from South Africa figured they would be leaving in 5-10 years as it goes the way of Rhodesia.
The US is 24th on this list of murders by country per capita
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita
Again, I question how accurate the reporting is in most other countries.
Additionally, including countries such as Japan and Switzerland (two pro/anti gun favorites) is flawed as both are very homogenous cultures- more so than most any other first world countries. Japan for example, has an extremely violent history. Not only in the way that they got rid of indigenous peoples as they settled the island but their history with the Chinese has been abominable. Most European countries have violent pasts also (and I'm not just talking about Germany in WWII); hacking people to death with a sword is quite gruesome.
I would venture that a big part of the problem now is that liberal mindset of victimization where people are told that they aren't responsible for their actions due to some defect in themselves which they can't help. People aren't taught that they and they alone, are responsible for their actions and that those actions have consequences nor are they forced to own up to and pay for those actions.
