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)