Did Parliament Shooting Change Canada's Gun Control Debate?

[flamin lib]

"With little fanfare, critics, led by conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, have been pushing back against the (gun) rules, which they say are unnecessarily cumbersome and costly . . ."

Since 1989 when 28 people were killed with a mini 14 rifle (military style semi auto with extended magazine) Canada has had some pretty strict regulations on guns and the people who buy them. To begin, there are no semi auto guns allowed in civilian hands, long guns or pistols. You must have a license to buy, undergo background check including interviews with friends, significant others past and present and local law enforcement. The conservatives were set to roll a lot of that back until the shootings at the Tomb of the Unknown and Parliament reminded lawmakers of why they have such rules to start with. Besides when the gun is pointed at YOU the perspective changes.

The conservatives cite three reasons for the rollback: the cost, the large inventory or illegal guns from the US make the gun registry useless (translation: criminals will get guns anyway) and “No methodologically sound study has found any important effect on homicide, suicide or violent crime rates from Canadian gun laws".

Any of that sound familiar?

All that said, the gun death rate in Canada from handguns is .3 per 100,000 and in the US it is 1.7 per 100,000. Overall gun deaths are 1.97 in Canada and 10.3 in the US per 100,000.

Of course the gunners will claim that NBC news is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bloomberg and therefore not relevant. Besides one of the guys over there has READ EVERY SINGLE STUDY INCLUDING THE CANADIAN STUDY AND DEBUNKED IT!