The apparent paradox of guns and crime is that gun homicide rates have been dropping for three decades in the United States while the number of guns in circulation has been rising. Those trends form an apparent paradox because guns are so much more lethal, given an attack, than other weapons, and in general, the more weapons in a state, the higher the rate of death from firearms. As both winners of the 2020 Stockholm Prize have shown, an additional element of evidence is needed to understand why there is no true paradox. With the declining percentage of households owning guns (at least until COVID‐19), the prevalence of gun ownership has been declining, even while the incidence (mean number of guns owned per owner) has been rising. The key to reducing gun violence, and perhaps suicides as well, may thus be reduced prevalence, even with rising incidence.

中文翻译：

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打破枪支和犯罪的悖论：发病率，患病率和2020年斯德哥尔摩奖

枪支和犯罪的明显悖论是，在美国，枪支凶杀率已经下降了三十年，而流通的枪支数量却在上升。这些趋势形成明显的悖论，因为在受到攻击后，枪支的致命性比其他武器高得多，并且一般而言，一个州的武器越多，枪支的死亡率越高。正如2020年斯德哥尔摩奖的两个获奖者所表明的那样，还需要另外的证据来理解为什么没有真正的悖论。随着拥有枪支的家庭百分比的下降（至少直到COVID-19为止），即使发生率（平均每名拥有枪支的枪支数量）在上升，枪支拥有率仍在下降。因此，减少枪支暴力和自杀的关键是降低患病率，