In 2012 409 people were killed by police officers in America in what were determined to be justifiable shootings. In Britain the police fired off a single shot. Nobody was killed.

Courtesy of PRI:

In 2012, 409 people were shot and killed by American police in what were termed justifiable shootings. In that same year, British police officers fired their weapons just once. No one was killed. 

In 2013, British police officers fired their weapons all of three times. No one died. According to The Economist, "British citizens are around 100 times less likely to be shot by a police officer than Americans. Between 2010 and 2014, the police force of one small American city — Albuquerque in New Mexico — shot and killed 23 civilians; seven times more than the number of Brits killed by all of England and Wales’s 43 forces during the same period. 

So wait, so does this mean that when a man approaches the police and asks them to kill him that they DON'T simply fill him with holes? 

The Economist argues that the reason for this disparity is actually quite simple: guns are comparatively rare in the UK. Most cops don't carry them and criminals rarely have access to them. The last time a British officer was killed by a gun was in 2012. In the US last year, 30 police officers were shot and killed in the line of duty. 

In December, PRI's The World reported on Icelanders grieving after their police force killed a man — for the first time in the country's history as a republic.

Perhaps the NRA would like to explain one more time how everybody owning a gun in America keeps all of us safe. I'm just not getting it.