Up at my Uncles farm, you needed to have a gun in your truck because of the black bears. I'm sure many of the gun registry supporters have never come face to face with anything bigger than the neighbourhood tomcat. They also seem to think gang members register their guns. Are they intentionally dense, or just stupid? Ms. Cukier is a gun hater. She thinks registering farmers long guns is going to cure the world of crime. Funny, just today a nut case in Britain killed 12 people and they have some of the toughest gun regulations around.
Dr. Mauser totally destroys Ms. Cukier's 10 points. I am posting his executive summary because it is so dead on.
To: Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security
Re: Bill C-391 - Countering Ten Misleading Claims
Executive summary
Bill C-391 is a simple and straightforward bill that proposes to dismantle the long-gun registry for non-restricted long guns, nothing more. Bill C-391 leaves in place the rest of Canada's gun control regime, including the requirement to obtain a licence, the screening of applicants, the requirement to register restricted and prohibited long guns, the need to take and pass the firearms safety course, and the rules on safe storage and transportation of firearms.
The evidence demonstrates that the repeal of the long-gun registry will not reduce public safety in Canada and may even improve it. After a brief review of the arguments, I examine and rebut the key points in the Coalition's letter sent to MPs on October 20, 2009.
The statistics provided here clearly shows that the long-gun registry has not been effective in reducing criminal violence and most especially that it has not saved lives. The multiple murders by shooting that have occurred since the registry was put in place prove that it is a waste of time and money.
Bill C-391 deserves support because the long-gun registry has failed to protect Canadians from gun violence and diverts vital police resources away from more effective efforts. In her report to Parliament, the Auditor General of Canada found that the long-gun registry cost taxpayers at least one billion dollars; later research doubled this estimate. She also noted that the Department had been unable to substantiate whether the long-gun registry had increased public safety or saved lives, which is surely the standard by which any success of the program should be measured.
Every one of the claims made by Ms Cukier made in her October letter to oppose bill C-391 is false or misleading.
In response to the misleading claims made by the Coalition for Gun Control, please consider the following information:
Claim #1: Access to a gun increases the risk of murder.
False: Canadian gun owners are less likely than other Canadians to commit homicide.
Claim #2: Rifles and shotguns are the weapons most likely to be used in domestic homicides.
False: The problem is the murder of family members, not the means of killing. Rifles and shotguns are not the weapons most likely to be used in domestic homicides. Knives are.
Claim #3: Spousal murders with guns have fallen threefold since the law passed, while spousal murders without guns have remained the same.
False: Spousal murders (with and without guns) have slowly been declining since the mid-1970s. There is no empirical support for the claim that the long-gun registry has reduced spousal murders. The long-gun registry was not begun until 2001.
Claim #4: Stronger gun laws have helped reduce gun violence.
False: Ms Cukier's letter begs the question of the effectiveness of gun laws against crime. She is deliberately confuses the date the long-gun registry began with the date the legislation received royal assent.
The rate of homicides committed with a firearm generally declined from the mid-1970s to 2002. This steady, long-term decline has been driven by economic and demographic changes. However, the use of firearms in homicide has increased since 2002.
Claim #5: Firearms stolen from legal owners are a significant source of crime guns. Registration is essential to prevent dangerous individuals from getting guns.
False: All studies of crime guns (or guns used in murders) agree that stolen registered firearms are infrequently involved.
It is the criminal record check, which is part of licensing, and certainly not registration, that stops criminals from getting guns legally. Bill C-391 will not change the current provisions for obtaining a firearms licence. Registration simply refers to the firearm, not the owner.
Claim #6: Firearms pose more problems in smaller cities where there are more gun owners.
False: Homicide is a particularly acute problem in large cities where ironically there are fewer legal gun owners.
Claim #7: The registry is an essential tool for police when taking preventative action and when enforcing prohibition orders to remove firearms from dangerous individuals.
False: The long-gun registry does not contain information on a gun's location. The registry only contains descriptive information about the registered guns.
Rank and file police members do not find the registry useful. In approaching dangerous situations, the police must assume there is a weapon.
Claim #8: The gun registry is consulted by police 10,000 times a day and provides important information.
False: Almost all of the "inquiries" are routinely generated by traffic stops or firearm sales and are not specifically requested; nor do police often find them useful. Almost all of these inquiries involve licensing, not the long-gun registry.
Claim #9: Polls show Canadians believe the gun registry should not be dismantled.
False: Two recent polls show that the public does not support the long-gun registry. This is consistent with at least 11 earlier polls, all of which have clearly demonstrated that the Canadian public has no faith in the long-gun registry or its ability to increase public safety.
Claim #10: Stronger gun laws have helped reduce gun-related death, injury, violence and suicide.
False. No properly designed study has been able to show that gun laws have been responsible for reducing criminal violence rates or suicide rates in any country in the world.
More police officers and better technologies are more effective routes to improving public safety.
In sum, the test of any governmental program should be whether it meets its goals. In this case, the long-gun registry has failed. It has failed to save lives. It has failed to reduce murder, suicide or aggravated assault rates. The long-gun registry continues to cost Canadian taxpayers millions of dollars each year. This money could be better spent on other more useful law enforcement measures, or be directed towards a number of other key priorities for Canadians such as health care.
Read the whole thing because in the full report he provides facts to back up his points, something that Cukier knows nothing about.
I don't own a gun, but I would like the option to carry one. As a female, even a 12 year old kid could overpower me if they wanted to. Am I allowed even pepper spray? Nope, it might hurt the potential rapist. What am I told to do? Don't fight it, and calmly let the rape happen. Do nothing to provoke the attacker. Are you kidding me? We wouldn't want to upset the rapist now would we?
I have a perfectly legal remedy, bear spray. Don't let the politicians know, because they will BAN it.
8 comments:
Cool - what does bear spray do?
If the right to own a gun made everybody safer, American would be the safest place on the planet.
Yesterday's news out of England with the cab driver who shot and killed 12 people and wounded a total of 25 with two weapons (both long-gun), was a tradgedy indeed.
Ms. Cukier will be relieved to know that both weapons were registered but did absolutely nothing to prevent this unfortunate incident.
That being said - Perhaps this individuals weapons should have been registered (twice) and that certainly would have solved the problem.
Where do they get them - and these people vote!
In Ontario when you buy your bear spray you have to sign a document swearing that you will NOT use it on a human being. They are currently looking in to baning it.
We should also include Dr. Mauser has some criticism regarding his own studies.
Very interesting take on the media analysis.
The evidence examined here suggests that Canada is not, on the whole, a very weaponized society. There are some worrisome indications that some segments of criminalized youth sub-culture may be becoming pistolized and this is reflected in both official
Downloaded from http://crj.sagepub.com by on July 30, 2009 332 Criminology & Criminal Justice 9(3)crime statistics and artefacts from popular culture.
http://www.iansa.org/regions/namerica/documents/guns-crime-Can-ccjAug09.pdf
Here is some interesting snapshots.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_gun_vio_hom_ove_hom_rat_per_100_pop-rate-per-100-000-pop
Article in the local paper on bear spray and how often it is used to commit crimes, particularly in Manitoba. They're already trying to tighten up control on that product.
What would Ms Cukier say if she knew there are school districts where familiarity with a long gun is as essential as a teaching certificate?
L: "Cool - what does bear spray do?"
It makes you attractive to other bears...
"Up at my Uncles farm, you needed to have a gun in your truck because of the black bears."
I commute, which means I need a vehicle. My need of a vehicle has absolutely nothing at all to do with the issue of vehicle regulation, and it would be absurd for me to raise my need as some kind of argument against said regulation.
The registry as proposed doesn't prevent people from defending themselves against bears. Erecting strawmen for the purpose of blowing them over might be fun, but it isn't very intellectually compelling.
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