Stricter Controls on Handguns

Dear Prime Minister:

The Canada Safety Council commends you for your promise to tighten controls on handguns in the bid to fight urban crime. We assume exemptions for sport shooters and the extenuating situations where permits for handguns are authorized will not be affected.

The fact is that handguns are deadly weapons. They are being used as a fast, easy and effective way to kill people, sometimes randomly. Beginning in 2001, handguns have consistently accounted for about two-thirds of all firearm-related homicides in Canada. According to a recently released Statistics Canada report, 65 percent of the 172 firearms-related homicides in 2004 were committed with a handgun.

Further controls on handguns will strengthen the public education and awareness value of gun control legislation in general. Criminology professor Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University in Vancouver has concluded there is more evidence to support the efficacy of gun control legislation in reducing death and injury than there is for most other legislative interventions. Building upon that intervention will only help. Rosemary Gartner, a University of Toronto criminologist, has stated that firearms laws not only have practical utility; they also reinforce social values.

Firearms deaths and injuries are linked to a complex set of factors including the culture of violence. Stricter gun control, predicated on a commitment to public health and safety as well as the detection and deterrence of criminal activity, is a critical part of the solution.

Sincerely,

Emile-J. Therien
President, Canada Safety Council