From: [umfran z m] at [cc.umanitoba.ca] (Jeff Scott Franzmann)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
Subject: Guns In Cause & Prevention Of Crime (from Untitled WIP by J.Franzmann)
Date: 13 Nov 1994 05:52:23 GMT

In Canada, firearm ownership is relatively close to that of the United 
States in terms of ownership per capita. According to a 1991 poll 
conducted by Angus Reid, commissioned by the Justice Department, of 9.6 
million Canadian households, 2.2 million reported owning at leas one type 
of firearm.

According to generous estimates, this places appx 8 million firearms in 
Canadian homes (1 for every 3 citizens). However, a more reasonable 
estimate is probably around 4-5 million. While this doesn't approach the 
same lever of ownership as that found in the United States, it is nowhere 
near as low as some people have claimed.

Ownership rates vary widely from province to province. According to the 
same Angus Reid poll, the ownership rates varied from 15% in Ontario to 
67% in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Alberta gun ownership rate is 
estimated to be 39%.

For those who enjoy a Frazerian method of analysis, the Canadian example 
ruins both sides of the pro/anti-gun argument concerning ownership rates 
and violent crime rates *. First, and most obviously, is the high 
ownership of guns in Canada. According to the position put forward by the 
more vocal advocates of strict gun control, Canada should have a much 
higher violent crime rate involving the use of firearms compared to that 
of the United States. THe relationship, however, falls apart. The crime 
rates in the United States and Canada are so divergent that in an overall 
analysis of the two nations, legal ownership of firearms cannot be 
considered to be a large factor in the size of the violent crime rate. 
However, the avid proponents of the RKBA like to point out that in the 
cities and states with strict gun control laws in the United States, the 
lack of gun ownership rates contributes to a high crime rate. They use 
these examples to prove the assertion that areas where people are not 
given the right to carry a weapon (concealed or in the open) are 
inherently more dangerous than those areas where ownership of firearms is 
more restrictive. Unfortunately, Canadian examples prove this assertion 
wrong again. By this method of reasoning, Ontario and New Brunswick 
should have among the highest crime rates in Canada (in terms of murder 
and violent crime). These dubious honours belong instead to Manitoba, 
British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, areas where gun ownership 
rates are either relatively high or average when compared to the rest of 
Canada.


*Frazerian analysis, for those who are not aware, is the practise of 
choosing only those facts which support your assertion, and ignoring 
those facts which work against your assertion. Frazerian analysis is 
practised ramapantly by both the avid proponents of the RKBA, and the 
proponents of strict gun control.

(Sources- Angus Reid, Winnipeg Office {1991 Justice Department Survey, 
Statistics Canada)

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