Israel and Switzerland have dramatically different gun ownership patterns than in the US.
I'm not familiar with the Swiss model, but in Israel:
- You must have gun license, which are strictly controlled and must be renewed every 3 years[1]
- You get a one-time supply of 50 bullets, which cannot be replenished[1]
These measures have been effective:
The 2011 attempted assassination of a US representative renewed the national gun control debate. Gun advocates claim mass-casualty events are mitigated and deterred with three policies: (a) permissive gun laws, (b) widespread gun ownership, (c) and encouragement of armed civilians who can intercept shooters. They cite Switzerland and Israel as exemplars. We evaluate these claims with analysis of International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) data and translation of laws and original source material. Swiss and Israeli laws limit firearm ownership and require permit renewal one to four times annually. ICVS analysis finds the United States has more firearms per capita and per household than either country. Switzerland and Israel curtail off-duty soldiers' firearm access to prevent firearm deaths. Suicide among soldiers decreased by 40 per cent after the Israeli army's 2006 reforms. Compared with the United States, Switzerland and Israel have lower gun ownership and stricter gun laws, and their policies discourage personal gun ownership.
I wonder if most "per capita" assessments in the USA take the "collector effect" into account.
That is, I've never owned a gun. I have a friend who owns something like 15 guns. I don't think it's necessarily accurate to say our gun ownership rate is 7.5. I mean, I think "per capita" almost always means "average (mean)", but I feel like the rate in my example should be 0.5, not 7.5.
There are statistics on % of the population (or households) that own guns, which might be what you're looking for? In your example that would be 50%, as one of the people owns one-or-more guns, and the other owns zero. In the U.S. the ownership rate hovers around 30%, though it varies considerably by state, from a low of 9% (Hawaii) to a high of 60% (Wyoming).
I'm not familiar with the Swiss model, but in Israel:
These measures have been effective:The 2011 attempted assassination of a US representative renewed the national gun control debate. Gun advocates claim mass-casualty events are mitigated and deterred with three policies: (a) permissive gun laws, (b) widespread gun ownership, (c) and encouragement of armed civilians who can intercept shooters. They cite Switzerland and Israel as exemplars. We evaluate these claims with analysis of International Crime Victimization Survey (ICVS) data and translation of laws and original source material. Swiss and Israeli laws limit firearm ownership and require permit renewal one to four times annually. ICVS analysis finds the United States has more firearms per capita and per household than either country. Switzerland and Israel curtail off-duty soldiers' firearm access to prevent firearm deaths. Suicide among soldiers decreased by 40 per cent after the Israeli army's 2006 reforms. Compared with the United States, Switzerland and Israel have lower gun ownership and stricter gun laws, and their policies discourage personal gun ownership.
[1] http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Israeli-gun-control-regul...
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22089893