Claude Fortin strips a client's rifle at B & L Sports hunting |
MONTREAL - There are two basic crime scenes when it comes to gun violence in Canada. One involves weapons that are traceable - sometimes using the $1 billion long-gun registry that is likely to be scrapped by the Conservative government this fall, as promised. The other - far more common - involves guns that are not traceable because they are not registered, the registration number was erased or the guns used to kill are never found.
The looming question as MPs get set to haggle once again over the emotional longgun registry issue is: Does it save lives?
What do the statistics show for the years since 2001, when the requirement of a licence to possess and acquire firearms started and since 2003, when registration of all firearms, including rifles and shotguns, became mandatory?
The Gazette compiled Statistics Canada data on the use of guns in violent crimes and found that only in a minority of cases were the guns registered. For example, of the 1,466 guns used in homicides between 2002 and 2009, 133 were registered, 360 were not registered, and 973 were of unknown origin (the firearm was not recovered or the serial number was removed). Long-gun deaths in that time declined from 40 to 29, a drop of 27 per cent.
Gun control: Crime and the registry
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