According to a new study, researchers have debunked the popular notion in the United States that 'guns make a nation safer'.
The study revealed that countries with lower gun ownership are safer than those with higher gun ownership.
Researchers evaluated the possible associations between gun ownership rates, mental illness, and the risk of firearm-related death.
Gun ownership in the United States has been a debatable issue for more than 200 years.
The shootings in Aurora, Tucson, Oak Creek, at Virginia Tech, among others in recent years, have demonstrated that there may be a relationship between mental illness and easy access to guns.
It further stresses that lack of treatment for mental illness may be more of a pressing problem than mere availability of guns.
The study was conducted by Sripal Bangalore of NYU Langone Medical Center, and Franz H. Messerli of St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.
The researchers said that the gun ownership rate was a strong and independent predictor of firearm-related death.
However, they found no significant correlation between mental illness and crime rate.
