September 2000 Fraser Forum: The Media and the Emotional Issue of Gun Control
Gun control is a contentious issue that pits one group’s rights against another’s. In Canada, the divide is between urban dwellers who are concerned about perceived increasing violent crime, and rural inhabitants who use guns to protect their property. One of the problems with gun control coverage on Canadian national news is that these competing interests are not mentioned. Rather, viewers are overwhelmed with emotional depictions of violent crime involving guns. To look into this phenomenon further, we examined CBC’s and CTV’s national news coverage of gun control from January 1, 1999 to May 31, 2000 to see how gun control was covered by the national television news.
Hook for gun control was US mass shootings
On CBC, gun control was most frequently mentioned when it was linked to American crime. The shooting of high school students in Littleton, Colorado, alone comprised 32 percent of CBC’s total attention to gun control. The only other mass shooting in the US over the period of the study to which CBC related the gun control issue was a shooting in Georgia comprising 6 percent of the attention. While American crimes received roughly 39 percent of CBC’s total gun control attention (figure 1), within the coverage of American crime, three-quarters of the attention emphasized the need for stricter gun control legislation. Only 18 percent of that coverage examined the arguments of gun owners. The remaining 7 percent of the attention to US crime discussed the current legislation.
CTV’s focus, while also concentrating on American shooting sprees, was different in its emphasis. US gun crimes consisted of 22 percent of CTV’s total attention to gun control. Sixteen percent of the total coverage was focused on Littleton, but CTV also discussed gun control in the context of the Georgia shooting, the Jewish child care centre shooting in Los Angeles on August 10, 1999, and the Washington, DC, zoo gang-related shooting on April 24, 1999, as well as a gun smuggling bust. Within the coverage on US crime, CTV emphasized the gun control advocate position 59 percent of the time with 27 percent of the attention examining the arguments of gun owners. The remaining 14 percent were factual statements.
CTV chose an American slant as the main hook for gun control, but rather than focusing on actual crimes, it emphasized the American political debate. Some of this debate was fuelled by the anti-gun rally’s self-described "Million Mom March," which was a response to the mass shootings in the US. This event alone comprised 20 percent of CBC’s and 28 percent of CTV’s total attention to gun control. Because the Million-Mom March so dominated the coverage of the American political debate on gun control, its proponents received the lion’s share of the coverage. Of the attention to US politics in the gun control stories, 60 percent of CBC’s and 59 percent of CTV’s attention focused on the gun control proponents’ arguments. This despite the fact that the Republican Party in the US, as well as the National Rifle Association, spoke out against the Million-Mom March and presented their views. Arguments in favour of gun ownership received 25 percent of CBC’s and 31 percent of CTV’s coverage on American politics.
Canadian mass killing example is 10 years old
The relating of Canadian violent crime to gun control occurred in 14 percent of CBC’s and 6 percent of CTV’s gun control stories. On CBC, this coverage stemmed from the fatal shooting of a high school student in Taber, Alberta. The remembrance ceremony for the Montreal massacre 10 years previous provided the remainder of the attention. The Montreal massacre received 4 percent of CBC’s and 3 percent of CTV’s total attention to gun control. This coverage entirely favoured stricter gun control measures.
Gun control in Canada
Considering the volume of attention given to American gun control stories, those from Canada were very limited in scope. For both networks, the bulk of the debate in Canada focused on the Supreme Court case in which 7 provinces and the territories challenged the federal gun registry system. Here the networks differed in the tone of their coverage. CTV was slightly more likely to provide the arguments of the gun owners over those of the gun control advocates (44 percent gun owners versus 40 percent gun control supporters). In contrast, CBC gave 55 percent of the coverage to the gun control contingent compared with 36 percent to gun owners. However, in the discussion of Canadian politics as they relate to the gun control issue, both CBC and CTV were nearly twice as likely to provide the arguments of gun owners over those of gun control advocates. This was because in the Canadian context, the Canadian Alliance leadership race was pivotal in the political debate about gun control. Stories from the two networks related the Canadian Alliance position that the gun registry system was flawed and that the Alliance advocated the position of gun owners.
Interestingly, while the networks’ stories rarely related crimes to guns or spoke of the need for increased gun control in Canada, overall attention to the issue was overwhelmingly in favour of stricter regulations, or at least a tacit approval of the existing Canadian regulations. In total, 65 percent of CBC and 56 percent of CTV attention to the issue favoured restricting firearms use.
Firearm use in violent crime down
Television has a powerful impact on the public’s perception of crime. On television news, Canadians are inundated with images of violent, random crime. Although the crimes are predominately American, the tragic random mass-shootings in the US frame our understanding of violent crime. In fact, in Canada, most multiple-victim homicides are family related and culminate in the suicide of the perpetrator (Statistics Canada, 1999a).
More troublesome is that when Canadian news networks deem it important to report the cause of murder, it is overwhelmingly from gun-related causes. Sixty-two percent of CBC’s, and 58 percent of CTV’s mentions of the causes of the death are attributed to guns (see figure 2). This is somewhat ironic because according to Statistics Canada, the use of firearms in violent crimes in Canada has been on the decline (Statistics Canada, 1999b). For example, firearms use in robberies has declined steadily since 1991. As well, the use of firearms has declined in homicides (Statistics Canada, 1999a); in 1998, firearms were involved in 27 percent of all homicides, the lowest proportion since 1961. In contrast, in 1998, the number of homicides resulting from stabbing, beating, or strangulation increased. Stabbing is by far the most common homicide method; it accounts for 1 in every 3 such deaths.
Despite the decrease in the use of firearms in Canadian crimes, surveys indicate that the majority of Canadians are in favour of stricter gun laws in general. In 1999, 73 percent of Canadians approved of stricter gun controls. This was up from 67 percent in 1998 (Edwards, 1999a). Clearly, the media’s focus on violent crime in the US has had an impact on Canadian perceptions. One month after the high school shooting in Littleton and in Taber, Alberta, Gallup asked Canadians what they thought the likelihood of a similar shooting in their community might be. Almost one-quarter believed that it was very likely, and a further 39 percent thought it was somewhat likely (Edwards, 1999b). No doubt the media’s emphasis on the gun control advocates’ position in the coverage influenced attitudes in Canada when 64 percent opined that the greatest blame for the killings lay with the availability of guns (Edwards, June 1999).
There are two serious negative consequences of the distorted portrayal of guns and crime in Canada. First, this type of coverage increases the fear of crime, which causes members of the general public to be overly suspicious and wary. Second, this fear results in the public demanding greater government regulation of firearms as well as harsher penalties for perpetrators of crime, especially youth (Edwards, 2000). This is despite all the contrary evidence indicating that both violent crime and gun crime have declined in Canada. As for crime among youth, Statistics Canada reports that youth in Canada already often spend more time in jail than their adult counterparts (Statistics Canada, 2000).1 Canadians don’t need more sensational reports of random violent crimes coming out of the US. What they do need are accurate facts about violent criminal activity in Canada, so they can understand for themselves just how safe life in this country really is. Only when they have the facts can Canadians adequately judge the effectiveness of current public policy and the lack of need for further state intrusion.
Note
1In "Sentencing of Young Offenders," The Daily says: "While young people
may have a lower incarceration rate than adults, they sometimes serve longer
terms of imprisonment. For each of the nine offenses examined, except robbery,
young people were more likely than adults to receive a longer term of custody,
that is, more than one month. For example, in the case of common assault,
65% of young offenders were jailed for longer than one month, compared
with 43% of adults."
Bibliography
Edwards, Gary (1999a). "Majority Favour Stricter Gun Laws." The Gallup Poll. Vol. 59:70, November 20.
_____ (1999b). "Majority of Canadians Believe school Shooting Could Happen in Their Communities." The Gallup Poll. Vol. 59:40, June 22.
_____ (2000). "Canadians Want a Strict Young Offenders Act." The Gallup Poll. Vol. 60:28. April 13.
Statistics Canada (1999a). "Homicide Statistics." The Daily. October 7.
_____ (1999b). "Crime Statistics," The Daily. July 21.
_____ (2000). "Sentencing of Young Offenders." The Daily. August 1.
Lydia Miljan (lydiam@fraserinstitute.ca) is the Director of the Alberta Initiative, as well as the the National Media Archive, of The Fraser Institute. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science.
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