I suppose this is off-topic if we can't bring it back to the design of a game. So I'll make a half-hearted effort.
- The US has a high per capita gun death rate for a first world country
The USA is a strongly Capitalist, somewhat free market country with a large stratification between rich and poor, and a big population. If you don't take those factors into account in your game, I don't think you're going to do the subject justice. One might also wish to consider the historical circumstances of any given country, such as being a rebellious colony that then expanded into a sparsely populated land mass, and also being some semblance of a democracy from the get-go. I think gun ownership issues in the USSR and modern day Russia would probably turn out somewhat different. Ready to write CivGun?
- Guns have a higher collateral damage rate than most peacetime weapons
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Some do not, in specific combat environments. For instance, the shotgun is the ideal home defense weapon, because it will kill lots of stuff at close quarters with not as much need to aim. It won't penetrate solid walls, killing people you didn't intend to. The sound of the shotgun being loaded is terrifying to an intruder and may cause them to flee before a shot needs to be fired. Any accurate game would need to feature a variety of weapons and defense environments. For instance, a chain gun isn't going to help you in circumstances short of a Steven Segal home defense film.
- Compared to weapons such as knives, tasers, etc, the death rate per incident is high
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Which from a legal defense standpoint is a good thing. The truth is, if your assailant is dead, and you didn't obviously shoot them in the back or off your property or stand over them emptying an entire clip execution-style into them, then it's your word against his and he's dead. Some countries like the USA are "gun cultures" where juries can be expected to understand and be sympathetic to lethal force via firearm. Such juries think you just pull a trigger, the assailant dies, there isn't a lot of thinking and second guessing about it. In contrast, knives and bare handed martial arts defenses are constantly questioned on a blow-by-blow basis, like everyone fighting for their life is in a Bruce Lee movie. Other cultures are knife or stick cultures, often due to British or other colonial experience, and are not at all sympathetic to the use of guns. Yet they may culturally expect a brutal chopping to be ok, especially say in Indonesia where one can be killed merely for slapping a hat off another man's head. From a game design standpoint again YMMV according to the weapon and the geographic culture.
- There are relatively few positive uses for guns in an urban environment (e.g. nothing to hunt)
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The most glaring exception being self-defense, especially in the home. Again, are you going to make a sim, or an interactive political tract?
- The psychological effects of guns can cause quick escalation of arguments
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Or de-escalation, case may be. Guns are excellent standoff weapons, as they clearly demonstrate the potential of lethal force. Knives are pretty good standoff weapons, they can keep some hotheaded confrontations from going any further. Sticks are not so good, at least in the USA. Whether a given weapon and communication style works for ending a confrontation, would depend on a lot of situational factors and would be a pretty complex roleplay. If you want to actually sell a game like this, it might be good to target it at law enforcement, the military, and private security companies - people who would actually pay big bucks for serious depth of sim.
