That article is very misleading since it lumps all countries with a 0-5 murders per 100,000 pop together. When you actually break it down by country, a different picture emerges, i.e.:
U.S.A .....14,000+ murders = 4.7 per 100K
Canada........554 murders = 1.6 per 100k
U.K..............722 murders = 1.2 per 100k
Germany.......690 murders = 0.8 per 100k
Japan...........506 murders = 0.4 per 100k
These are 2012 figures, so the U.S. murder rate is 3 to 12 times higher than countries with a comparable standard of living.
when you look at firearms related homicide, the discrepancy is even worse:
USA = 3.6
Can. = 0.5
UK = 0.04
Ger. = 0.20
Jap. = zero
There the US has a murder rate by firearms 7 to 90 times higher than other comparable countries.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..._homicide_rate