Volume 9, Number 3
September/October 2000

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Things Folks Know That Just Ain't So...

What folks know...

Gun Control legislation is an effective way of reducing violent crimes.

Why it ain't so...

Gun Control legislation is a perfect illustration of why good intentions don't necessarily make good policy. The compelling evidence is that there is no apparent connection between gun availability and violent crime rates.

According to a report by the Claremont Institute on myths surrounding gun control, "since 1978, criminological studies examining the relationship between violent crime and private gun ownership have typically found no significant effect of gun ownership on the violent crime rate. Some studies actually found a negative relationship. In other words, areas with high gun ownership experienced less crime than comparable areas with lower firearm ownership."

Certainly, the track record of "gun control" in actually reducing criminal violence is not good. In fact, no government in the world can boast that the introduction of stricter firearms laws has actually reduced criminal violence. Firearms have been banned in Jamaica, Hong Kong, New York City, and Washington, DC, without leading to decreases in homicides. Consequently, governments that impose stricter gun controls frequently find themselves calling for another round of yet stricter firearms laws just a few years after introducing the original legislation.

Universal registration was intended to speed police investigations, and taking handguns away from civilians would supposedly lower the homicide and firearms-related crime rates. But firearms are involved in such a small percentage of violent crimes that the crime rate would not be reduced significantly if all firearms disappeared overnight.

Statistics on Canadian crime:

• Canada has a low homicide rate—about 2 per 100,000 compared to 9 per 100,000 for the United States—and firearms are involved in less than a third of them.
• Between 1961 and 1990, an average 130 homicides were committed each year with handguns, of which fewer than four per year were known to be registered.
• Firearms are used in robberies more often than in any other violent crime and, even so, they are used less than 30 percent of the time.
• Handguns are involved in only 2.3 percent of violent crime in Canada, and rifles and shotguns in only 2.8 percent.
• Canadians use firearms about three times as often in self-defense as in criminal violence.
• Between 2.2 million and 3.4 million of Canada's 10 million households have firearms.
• There are about 5 million rifles and shotguns and 1 million handguns in this country. Handguns have been registered since 1934.

One of the reasons that universal firearms registration programs don't work is that the legislation naively assumes that all gun owners are identical. In reality there are at least two types of firearms owner: the ordinary person (e.g., the hunter or target shooter), and the violent offender. The problems posed to public safety by these two groups differ considerably.

Prior to Ottawa's introduction of gun control legislation, there were systems already in place for regulating the average person (e.g., the Firearms Acquisition Certificate, hunting regulations, handgun registration, and regulations for storing, handling, and transporting firearms). However, the violent offender poses a significant threat to public safety, and greater efforts must be focused here. It is a truism that laws only apply to the law-abiding. It is unlikely that gun control laws will have any effect on these individuals.

Given that the data and research consistently show that guns do not cause crime, the federal government should look at means other than gun control to reduce the violent crime rate in Canada.

For more information on this topic, see the Fraser Institute Critical Issues Bulletin Gun Control is not Crime Control by Professor Gary Mauser of Simon Fraser University, March 1995, available on our web site at www.fraserinstitute.ca.

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