You know, the funny thing is that we grew up with guns in the house and since our parents never made a big deal out of it (meaning we were allowed to handle them and shoot them whenever we wanted) we never thought of them as anything more than a tool - such as an axe or hachet may be regarded.

The point being that I'm sure there are much more acts of violence involving machete's in El Salvador than with handguns.

Likewise in the U.K., I'm sure the porportion of crime is the same but perhaps the tools used to commit those crimes are different.

What's the main type of crime that you see in your area? I think maybe there is a perception of rampant gun violence in the U.S. because that is what makes the headlines the most. However, you are right that proliferation of anything (cars, guns, even machetes) will cause an increase in related deaths/trauma to humans involving those particular items.