Watched a couple of episodes of this series and was amazed that it went on for more than 15 minutes without a shot being fired.

In fact it went on like that for two entire episodes. And I got to know the characters and care about them in a short period of time.

I thought I was on an different planet or in an alternate universe.

No wonder this show didn't last long initially. It looks too much like the actual daily lives of law enforcement, even at the federal level, where even the ridiculously high rate of gun violence in this country does not prevent most crimes from being free of gun fire and full of personal tragedy.

All law enforcement people must deal with that daily.

I wonder what they think of this show if they've seen it.

Without a Trace ran for 7 years. I'm not sure what you mean by it not lasting long. I liked it because there was hope and the victims weren't always dead which made it nice instead of a body count.

I could not find any study on the internet that gives the rate of gun violence per episode (shown or implied) for the USA. Most studies seem to have been done in Canada or Australia, both of which fret about the relationship to actual gun violence rates even though both nations have much lower such rates than the USA.

The IRA and other supporters of gun proliferation likely do a very good job of squelching such studies or biasing them in favor of their point of view, so the lack of USA data do not surprise me.

So my only evidence is anecdotal. I only saw a gun once in two episodes of this show and it turned out not to be the murder weapon. That reflects the reality even if it downplays the other violence and gunless (often white-collar) lawlessness that dominates USA culture.

As for the length of time that shows run, the 7 year stint of "Without a Trace" a perusal of this wiki article suggests shoot-em-ups have a longer staying time than crime dramas with fewer gun violence crimes.

Gunsmoke and Law and order lasted 20 years; Bonanza 14; NYPD Blue 12 and Hawaii Five-O 12.

CSI is up to 10 and still going. This does not of course include reruns. I don't know how much gun violence happens in those modern shows, but Gunsmoke and Bonanza were regular gunfests. I doubt it has changed.

I don't see the correlation when "The Simpsons" have been on for 22 years. Plus, NYPD, Bonanza, Hawaii 5-0 etc. all ran on television when there were only 3 channels, NBC, CBS, and ABC, less competition and more patience with shows and ratings. "Seinfeld" would have been canceled after a couple of episodes if it premiered now instead of in the 90s. 7 years for any show and syndication where it plays seemingly all of the time is great. "Homicide: Life on the Street" was much darker but did not have the same shelf life. xo