Gun Laws In Canada. Do they actually protect us?

Over the last few months the subject of gun control in Canada has come up in conversation at different times with a two of my associates. Interestingly enough these two individuals voiced opinions that were at two totally different ends of the scale. Funny enough, one from Toronto sat on the side of stronger gun control, while the other, an Albertan felt that there was too much effort on the governments part already.

So, where do I sit on this issue?

Let me start by saying that I am in no way an anarchist, I fully realize that without laws there would be no society. However I am also a firm believer that if a segment of society is creating a problem you deal with that segment in a way that resolves the issue for the rest of society. So, this leads me to believing that in most cases you deal with the criminal, not his tools.

In the case of gun control in Canada I think that the first question one needs to ask is......


How big a problem are guns in Canada and are they causing the unnecessary deaths of Canadians?
So lets get some perspective. First, how do gun deaths compare to other causes of Death in Canada?

In 2007 all deaths related to firearms totaled 722 or 0.312% (less the 1/3 of 1%) of all deaths.

Lets break it down a bit more, of the 722 firearm deaths, 534 were from suicide, 167 occurred during a commission of a crime, 16 were accidental, leaving 5 that were undetermined.

By the same token during that year deaths related to transport (auto, air, boat) totaled 3077 or 1.31% of all deaths.Trailing right behind this group are death from falls (I am not referring to Niagara Falls here) which totaled 2677, with 48 of these related to falling from ladders and 105 listed as a fall out of bed! Trust me I did not make this up.

So bear with me on this, lets assume that in the case of suicide by firearm that the vast majority of these individuals if they did not have a firearm probably would have went to Plan B, Strangulation or Hanging accounted for 1551 deaths, with poisoning right behind with 958 deaths.

So if we set aside the suicide by firearms and just look at the firearm deaths that occurred as a result of a crime we are left with 167 deaths (shown above in RED), compared to 153 deaths caused by falling out of bed or off a ladder (shown above in BLUE)


So in a nutshell from where I sit, rather than continue to attempt to reduce deaths by eliminating firearms society could achieve almost the same desired results by banning ladders and beds. In fact if you toss in the 6 deaths related to Syphilis, which would be a lot more difficult to spread without beds you are very close to hitting the 167 mark.


Yes I know many will argue that the above is a ridiculous comparison, but I would argue that it is no more ridiculous than trying to prevent the vast majority of 35 million law abiding citizens from owning firearms based on the fact that 167 individuals died from the use of them in criminal pursuits.


Lets all thank God that MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) did not approach the issue of impaired driving with the concept of eliminating vehicles. After all, no vehicles, no impaired driving and no deaths related to it. Mind you the argument could be made that eliminating vehicles would simply mean an increase in deaths caused by impaired operation of a horse and buggy.


Nuff Said..............