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In Canada from 1961-1990, there were a total of 15,198 homicides.
63.1% were with a non-firearm. 14.3% were with a non-restricted rifle. 13% were with a illegally owned restricted firearm. 6.5% were with a non-restricted shotgun. 2.4% were with a unidentified firearm. 0.7% were with a legally owned and registered restricted firearm. [8]
In 1992, there were 756 homicides(including self defense homicides) in Canada, of those, 26.19% with with firearms, that leaves 73.81% homicides by means other that a firearm. [8]
Prior to January 1978 when Bill C-51 came into effect, Canada had very liberal gun laws. From 1977 to 1991, Canada's violent crime rate has increased 89% (583 to 1099 violent crimes per 100,000 population) compared to a 59% for the US in the same period. (476 to 758 violent crimes per 100,000 population). [10]
"The NRA's army of slick lobbyists even fought our efforts to ban ... plastic pistols which can't be found by metal detectors, ...! (COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE)[9]
"The NRA's army of slick lobbyists even fought our efforts to ban ...cop-killer bullets specifically designed to pierce bullet-proof vests!" (COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE)[9]
In the USA the following persons are prohibited by law from possessing firearms: convicted felons, fugitives from justice, illegal drug users, the mentally ill, illegal aliens, dishonorable dischargees from the armed forces, and anyone who has renounced U.S. citizenship.[7]
The comparison is meaningless because it is an apples vs oranges comparison. 37 of the 43 are suicides, 4.6 are classified as criminal homicides, and 1.3 were classified as accidents.[5]
Kellermann and Reay, the authors of the study have stated themselves that "cases in which burglars or intruders are wounded or frightened away by the use or display of a firearm [and] cases in which would-be intruders may have purposely avoided a house known to be armed.."[5] should be included as a benefit. BUT, when they calculated their comparison they did NOT include those cases. They therefore undercounted protection uses by at least 500 times.[6] If the purpose is to compare defensive uses verses misuse, all defensive uses should be counted, not just the 0.2% of time when a defensive use results in the death of an attacker. You measure defensive uses by lives saved, not criminals killed, after all, the purpose of self defense is to prevent or stop a criminal attack, not kill the attacker.
Homicides that were found to be self-defense in a court of law were counted as criminal homicides by this study, thus over stating the number of criminal homicides, and under stating the number of self-defense homicides.
"Someone you know" is often described as friends or even "loved ones", but in reality this includes rival gang members, drug dealers, abusive spouses and acquaintances, and so on. Those who proclaim the 43-1 statistics will often imply that only dear friends, loved family members, and small innocent children are the ones being killed, an obviously misleading statement.
The study failed to distinguish between households or environs populated by people with violent, criminal, or substance-abuse histories -- where the risk of death is very high -- versus households inhabited by more civil folk (for example, people who avoid high-risk activities like drug dealing, gang banging and wife beating) -- where the risk is very low indeed. In actuality, negligent adults allow fatal but avoidable accidents; and homicides are perpetrated mostly by people with histories of violence or abuse, people who are identifiably and certifiably at ~high risk~ for misadventure.
The Hart Poll in 1981 found 644,000 defensive uses with handguns per year. The Mauser Poll in 1990 found 691,000 defensive uses per year. The Field Poll in California in 1978 found 1.2 million handgun defensive uses per year. The Time/CNN Poll in 1989 found over 908,000 defensive uses per year. Gary Kleck estimated the yearly defensive use of firearms by civilians to be at about 1,000,000 per year. A more recent study by Gary Kleck put the yearly total at approximately 2,400,000 defensive uses. Yet the total deaths by firearm in the USA only runs about 25,000 to 30,000 per year, and that includes accidents, murders, suicides and self defense homicides. That means a gun is 30-40 times more likely to defend against an assault or other crime than kill anybody. As accidental firearm's related deaths is about 1400 per year, including hunting accidents, the defensive use verses accidental death ratio is about 700-800 to 1. A study by Simon Fraser University professor Gary Mauser shows Canadians use guns in self-defense against assailants more than 32,000 times a year.
The NRA has been pushing point of sale "instant" background checks of firearm purchasers, as well as laws prohibiting the possession of firearms by minors except for supervised hunting and target shooting activities. The "Three Strikes and You're Out" Law recently approved in Washington State is a NRA Initiative.
[1]National Firearms Association fact sheet.
[2]Coalition For Gun Control fact sheet.
[3]Handgun Control Incorporated letter(s).
[4]American Rifleman, August 1993, Pg42-44, "Kids and Guns" by David Kopel.
[5]"Protection or Peril? An Analysis of Firearm-Related Deaths in the Home," Arthur L. Kellermann and Donald T. Reay, The New England Journal of Medicine 314, no. 24 (June 12, 1986): 1557-1560
[6]"Crime Control through the Private Use of Armed Force" by Professor Gary Kleck.
[7] US federal law, 18 USC 922(g).
[8] Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (Stats Canada)
[9] Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Letter to Florida Residents, Nov '93
[10] U.S. Source "Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 1991", Federal Bureau of Investigation, p.58 CDN. Source "Crime Trends in Canada 1962-1990", Cdn. Ctr. for Justice Statistics, p.15.
[11] Handgun Control Incorporated Fact Card (circa 1986)