Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [ak 409] at [FreeNet.Carleton.CA] (David Bartlett)
Subject: Info re Canadian Handgun Prohibition Petition
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 1994 11:50:38 GMT
I just received this article from the author and thought it was worth
posting. Note I am not the author, just the poster.
Gun Control: A Counterproductive Petition
H. Taylor Buckner
Associate Professor of Sociology
Concordia University
For every complex problem there is a simple solution which
won't work. The Concordia Handgun Prohibition Petition is an
example. In the University they asked people to sign in memory of
their colleagues, in their letter writing campaign they said, "We
have a special responsibility as educational institutions to be
social critics and to act in a constructive manner to make our
society a wiser, safer and better place."
A just completed scientific survey of undergraduate students
at Concordia demonstrated that the students who signed the petition
do not know what the current law is, vastly over estimate the
involvement of handguns in homicides, and would have been just as
willing to sign a petition that asked for the current law.
One would certainly think that with a university putting its
prestige on the line, trying to make society "wiser and safer,"
that this petition was based on in-depth criminological analysis.
This is not so. It is an unanalyzed "politically correct," guns
are bad, reaction, an embarrassment to scholarship. In spite of
the parade of institutions that have signed on, the emperor has no
clothes; the Rector has no research.
The closest the Concordia administration has come to an
analysis of the effect of the petition is the statement: "The
prohibition of handguns in this country will reduce the quantity of
these lethal and easily concealable firearms available, both
legally and illegally. As a result there can only be a decrease in
the number of deaths and injuries." (Gazette, 15 June 1993, p. B2)
It would certainly reduce the number of legal firearms, which
cause very little trouble and sometimes save lives, but it is
magical thinking to assume it would have any effect at all on the
guns that cause most deaths and injuries, or the guns used in
robberies, guns that are already illegal. Criminals now face a
five year term for possessing an unregistered handgun, and they do
it anyway. They face 10 years for a "large capacity" magazine, and
ignore it. (I questioned 15 gunsmiths in 5 Provinces in September,
1993. Only registered owners, no criminals, had come in for legal
magazines.) Does the Concordia administration think that
criminals will give up their guns because the Rector wants them to?
There is a thriving criminal market in illegal handguns in
Canada. The Globe & Mail reports that a loaded revolver goes for
$200 on the street (7 Oct 92). Guns are smuggled in by the
hundreds from the U.S. for sale in the black market. Canadian
Press reported that four Mohawks were arrested in Vermont for
buying 400 guns to smuggle into Canada (18 Mar 93) after one of
their guns showed up in a drug-related murder attempt in Montreal.
As Neal Jessop, Chair of the Legislation Committee of the Canadian
Police Association, testified before the Committee on Justice:
"If they (criminals) want a hot gun they will buy it.
They don't have to go far to get it. They can go to
Buffalo. They can go to New York. They can go to North
Dakota, or wherever they have to go to get it. They will
get it."
Some handguns are stolen from registered owners and
distributors. Given the numbers that are being smuggled in this is
a relatively small part of the illegal supply, and criminals prefer
not to use guns that could implicate them in another crime. The
new "safe storage" laws should reduce gun theft considerably. A
law making the theft of a gun a specific crime with a mandatory
sentence would reduce this source of illegal guns significantly.
The guns used in robberies and homicides are illegal guns.
Fabricant alone doubled the annual rate of homicides with legal
handguns for 1992. It took him 23 months to get around the
regulations, and the loophole he found has been closed. There may
be, somewhere in Canada, a criminal who had no record, went through
the application and investigation process, waited several months to
pick up his gun, and then used his own gun in a crime, but he
surely does not have much company.
Canadians have needed a police permit to purchase a handgun
since 1913. It has proven to be a remarkably effective control.
According to a tabulation Statistics Canada ran for me, fewer than
four homicides a year, on average, from 1961 to 1990, were
committed with registered handguns. This is less than 3/4 of 1% of
all homicides. There are fewer than five accidental handgun deaths
a year, (four in 1991) and some of these are from illegal handguns.
Handguns are used in suicide less frequently than any other method,
there were only 43 (some with illegal guns) in 1991. Handgun
suicides are usually committed by older men (average age 47), and
police officers. When the handgun murder rate goes up it is
because there is more criminal activity, not because more
registered owners are committing murder.
A handgun prohibition will affect only legally registered gun
owners, who have their guns under one of four provisions of the
law.
The first of these provisions is "to protect life." These are
rarely given, and only when the police are convinced of the
necessity, and implicitly admit that they cannot provide the
necessary protection. Under a handgun prohibition these owners
would be stripped of protection. Some will be murdered.
The second reason is "for use in connection with his lawful
profession or occupation." Under prohibition security guards, not
being "law enforcement" officers, would not get permits. This
means they will have to use shotguns to protect banks, armored cars
and some stores. Shotguns are not very quick to use, and a
security guard will be hesitant to spray pellets around in a
crowded bank or mall. Guards will be killed in greater numbers.
Robbers will be safer.
The third reason is for "use in target practice under the
auspices of a shooting club ... approved by the Attorney
General..." Target shooters have to renew their transport permit
with the police every year. Canada has many champions in a number
of different pistol shooting disciplines. Olympic target shooters,
Action shooters, International Practical Pistol Confederation
shooters, etc., would all be stripped of their guns. Canada would
cease to compete in numerous international venues, including the
Olympics. International matches could no longer be held in Canada.
Guns worth hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly unsuited to
crime, would be confiscated from these owners.
The fourth provision is for "genuine gun collectors." Gun
collectors often have collections worth many thousands of dollars.
They must keep them in safes, and have to agree to periodic
inspection of their collections and records by the police without
warrant. A prohibition would mean seizure without compensation, as
has been true with other guns and "large capacity" magazines when
they were prohibited. This will result in the seizure of a large
part of the collectors' estates.
All of these provisions of the law are dismissed by the
Concordia administration: "Handguns have no redeeming qualities and
their presence makes no contribution to our society." The Rector
had security guards protect his home when threatened by Valery
Fabrikant, but he would deny this protection to anyone else.
It would certainly be easy to seize most registered handguns,
the name and address of the owner being on record with the
provincial police and R.C.M.P., but nothing in a handgun
prohibition would make it any easier to collect unregistered guns
in the hands of criminals. Thus a handgun prohibition would
probably increase the overall number of handgun deaths,
particularly of store owners, women and men who have been granted
"defense of life" permits, bank and security guards.
Mortality 1991 - Statistics Canada - Summary List of Causes
Accidents, Suicide; Homicide (from Juristat)
-----------------------------------------------
Causes Number Percent
-----------------------------------------------
ALL CAUSES
ACCIDENTS 8,721 4.46%
SUICIDE 3,593 1.84%
HOMICIDE 753 0.39%
ALL OTHER CAUSES 182,501 93.32%
Total Deaths in 1991 195,568 100.00%
ACCIDENTS
Transport 3,882 44.51%
Falls 2,053 23.54%
All other accidents 727 8.34%
Poisoning 699 8.02%
Drowning 390 4.47%
Inhaling Food 341 3.91%
Fire & Flames 318 3.65%
Medical Misadventures 146 1.67%
Rifles and Shotguns 62 0.71%
Electric Current 39 0.45%
Theraputic Drugs 33 0.38%
Explosives 22 0.25%
Lightning 5 0.06%
Handgun (Legal and Illegal) 4 0.05%
Total Accidental Deaths 1991 8,721 100.00%
SUICIDE
Rifles and Shotguns 1,065 29.64%
Hanging, Strangulation 1,034 28.78%
Other Means 510 14.19%
Drugs 502 13.97%
Gas 393 10.94%
Other Solid or Liquid 46 1.28%
Handgun (Legal and Illegal) 43 1.20%
Total Suicides in 1991 3,593 100.00%
HOMICIDE
Stabbings 224 29.75%
Beatings 140 18.59%
Rifles and Shotguns 135 17.93%
Illegal Handguns 131 17.40%
All Other 118 15.67%
Legal Handgun (Est.) 5 0.66%
Total Homicides in 1991 753 100.00%
---------------------------------
Postscript by the poster:
Surprisingly the previous press relaease by Dr. Buckner seems to have had
a tremendous impact. Most coverage of the handgun prohibition petition's
presentation to Parliament has at least mentioned Buckner's study and some
concentrate on Buckner's research and highlight the ignorance of those who
signed the petition.
--
Dave Bartlett | [ak 409] at [freenet.carleton.ca]
Ontario, Canada | [DAVID BARTLETT] at [f125.n163.z1.fidonet.org]
| 613-443-0749 (voice)