Real Gun Control Means Controlling Bad Guys

It’s time to stop treating law-abiding hunters, farmers and sports shooters worse than criminals

Real Gun Control Means Controlling Bad Guys

Why does Prime Minister Harper treat innocent hunters, farmers and sports shooters worse than criminals just because they own guns? He has repeatedly promised the Conservatives would get tough on criminals - not decent, law-abiding Canadians.

And so, why are licensed gun owners, who have done nothing wrong in their whole lives, subject to a penalty of up to two years in jail simply for failing to report their change of address to police while those convicted of violent crimes are not?  Why are licensed firearms owners required to open their homes for inspection by the police without having been accused of any crime while those prohibited from owning firearms by the courts are not?

Ten years ago, Member of Parliament for Yorkton-Melville, Garry Breitkreuz was asking these same questions of then Prime Minister Paul Martin in his Draft Plan to Register Criminals - Not Duck Hunters (see link below).  At the time Breitkreuz was the Official Opposition Critic for Firearms and Property Rights.  Consequently, it’s a mystery to most hunters, sport shooters and gun collectors why we are still asking these same questions of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

This mystery is even more compelling for two reasons, one, that during his run for the leadership of the Canadian Alliance Party in January of 2002, Stephen Harper promised to fulfil the promise of his former boss Preston Manning, to repeal a “bad law” known as Bill C-68 (see link below), and two, in the fifteen years since Bill C-68, the Firearms Act came into effect, all the evidence proves that law-abiding gun owners are some of the safest citizens of Canada.

Some of this evidence supporting better control of the Bad Guys was documented in a recent proposal to reform the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) system by Professor Emeritus Gary Mauser .

The Bad Guys

“In a study of federal offenders the reconviction rate was over 40% within three years after release. Approximately 13% of these reconvictions involved violent offences.”

“Virtually all crimes committed with firearms involve illegally possessed firearms.”

—Reforming CPIC, Some Thoughts, Gary Mauser - 15 August 2012

The Good Guys

“Despite lurid media accounts of murders involving firearms, law-abiding gun owners (i.e., those with valid licences) do not threaten public safety. Canadians who have a firearms licence are less than one-third as likely to commit murder as other Canadians. Statistics Canada data show that licensed gun owners had a homicide rate of 0.60 per 100,000 licensed gun owners between 1997 and 2010.  Over the same period, the average national homicide rate was 1.85 per 100,000.”

—Reforming CPIC, Some Thoughts, Gary Mauser - 15 August 2012

Additionally, McMaster University Dr. Caillin Langmann’s groundbreaking analysis, Canadian Firearms Legislation and Effects on Homicide 1974 to 2008 concluded:  “This study failed to demonstrate a beneficial association between legislation and firearm homicide rates between 1974 and 2008.”—Caillin Langmann, MD, PhD - McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - February 10, 2012

In light of this and other published evidence (see links below) it is bewildering why the Conservatives continue to support and implement almost all of the previous Liberal government’s gun control legislation including tracking the the daily whereabouts of about two million licensed gun owners.  All the while more than 300,000 convicted criminals who have been prohibited from owning firearms by the courts are free to move anywhere they want in Canada without notifying the police.  This wrong-headed approach wastes tens of millions of dollars each year and does next to nothing to improve public safety or police safety. This needs to be corrected. 

To conclude with a plea to Prime Minister Harper: it’s time to keep your promises. It’s time to stop treating law-abiding hunters, farmers and sports shooters worse than criminals.  The very least you should do to improve public and police safety is to start requiring convicted violent criminals to keep their addresses current with police in the same manner that the Criminal Code treats innocent gun owners.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

GARRY BREITKREUZ, MP, YORKTON-MELVILLE, SASKATCHEWAN

Excerpts from a speech given to the Canadian Shooting Sports Association Nov 25, 2006

NEWS RELEASE - February 25, 2004: http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/2006_new/110.htm

BREITKREUZ RELEASES DRAFT PLAN TO REGISTER CRIMINALS – NOT DUCK HUNTERS

“Statistics Canada data proves that criminals are the problem – not law-abiding gun owners.”http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/breitkreuzgpress/guns114.htm

Gary Mauser. Professor emeritus, Simon Fraser University. mauser@sfu.ca

Reforming CPIC, Some Thoughts -  15 August 2012:

http://www.sfu.ca/~mauser/papers/CPIC/Reforming-CPIC.pdf 

Canadian Firearms Legislation and Effects on Homicide 1974 to 2008 and here

Caillin Langmann, MD, PhD - McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/10/05/gun-control-homicide-rates-not-linked-study/