I was recently piqued by a conversation about self-defence and gun control in the United States.
I have long heard both sides of the debate and doubt such a complex matter will be easily resolved. However, I was curious about how the issue of gun control versus freedom relates to Canadians.
Statistics Canada has interesting numbers about the subject. I could not find years that match up exactly, but they were close enough that I felt comfortable drawing some conclusions from them. I avoided picking and choosing periods, instead working with what I could readily find.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
The period 2008-12 averaged 583 homicides a year and 642 attempted homicides in Canada. With a population of 34 million, it means the average citizen had a .004 percent chance of being a victim to these crimes.
The most common method of homicide during this period was stabbings at 189 per year.
Gun freedom proponents often bring up home invasions. There were 156,357 break and enter crimes in Canada in 2013, although the Statistics Canada website didn’t indicate how many of these crimes were home versus business invasions.
It is impossible to reliably determine the chance of being a victim of a break and enter. A single occurrence of this crime can affect more than one individual.
However, given the ratio of break and enter crimes to our population, it seems the chance of being a victim in Canada is very low.
As well, 265,063 physically violent crimes were committed in 2013. I am loosely defining “physically violent crimes” as assault, attempted murder, homicide, sexual assault and robbery. It means the average citizen had a .75 percent chance of being the victim of this crime.
Each of us must individually decide whether these percentages are significant enough to reconsider how we maintain our personal security and if firearms fit into that equation.
Looking at these statistics, I personally believe Canadians should feel reasonably safe when it comes to firearms violence in our country.
We could moderately loosen some laws such as magazine capacity for centrefire rifles, as well as pistol storage and transportation restrictions, without necessarily causing a lot of additional public safety issues.
Reasonable restrictions could re-main in place but some careful loosening would go a long way for lawful and socially conscious Canadian firearm owners.
Kim Quintin is a Saskatoon outdoor enthusiast and knife maker. He can be reached for column content suggestions at kim.quintin@producer.com or 306-665-9687.
