TONY BERNARDO: No: guns are overregulated now
Date: Feb 15, 2007 8:26 AM
PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2007.02.15
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A17
PNAME: Arguments
ILLUSTRATION: Photo: Gun;
BYLINE: Tony Bernardo
SOURCE: Citizen Special
WORD COUNT: 747

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Is it time for a crackdown?: No: guns are overregulated now and
semi-automatics are unfairly vilified

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In recent weeks, the topic of gun control has been front and centre in
the media. This time, the onslaught is directed against semi-automatic
firearms rather than the usual tirades against the civilian ownership of
handguns.

All this publicity, spawned by the tragic events surrounding the Dawson
College shootings, culminated in the Liberal party convention resolution
put forward by the National Women’s Liberal Commission (Nova Scotia) to
ban all semi-automatic firearms in Canada. As is typical when one gets
information from sensation-frenzied media, the resolution was so fraught
with factual errors as to call into doubt the credibility of the
resolution’s drafters.

This resolution claimed semi-automatic firearms are illegal for hunting
and are not part of Canada’s “hunting culture.”

Nothing could be further from the truth. There are about 1.6 million
semi-automatic firearms in Canada’s firearms registry. These represent
about 23 per cent of the firearms in the system. An enormous proportion
of these are common rifles and shotguns.

Semi-automatic firearms are nothing new. The first semi-automatic rifle
saw use in 1885, and the Browning Auto-5 shotgun was born in 1900. They
see wide use in the hunting fields and are used for civilian purposes
across Canada.

They are also very common for target sports. Clay target shooting,
Bullseye, IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation), and
many other sporting disciplines use these firearms, including the
Canadian Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams.

Despite the outcries of those who seek to ban firearms altogether, the
fact that firearms are significant, historical artifacts of Canadian
culture and world history simply cannot be denied. Many of the precious
relics in gun collections are semi-automatic by design.

The firing characteristics of semi-automatic firearms are little
different from those of any other firearm. They operate on the same
principles as any other repeating firearm. Unlike full automatics
(machine-guns), semi-automatics fire one shot with each pull of the
trigger.

Any advantage in speed must be taken in context with other firearms
types. An experienced rifleman can operate a bolt action (the slowest
type) in as little as one second and a semi-automatic firearm in about a
half-second, but the actual difference in time is negligible.

Remember, Lee Harvey Oswald, a mediocre marksman at best, fired three
telling shots in 8.6 seconds at a moving target 50 metres away. This
clearly illustrates that any perceived advantage of a semi-automatic is
pretty tenuous.

Another myth that seems to have taken hold is that semi-automatic
firearms are more powerful. In fact, the opposite is true. The operating
mechanisms of semi-automatics cannot take the continual battering of
high-intensity cartridges, and they tend to be chambered for weaker
ammunition, unlike manually operated firearms.

But what about their supposed ability to be converted to fully automatic
machine-guns? This is another myth perpetuated by the anti-gun lobby.
Canadian law does not permit the importation of any firearm capable of
being easily converted to full-auto. For those who don’t know,
machine-guns are banned in Canada and have been for decades.

The anti-gun lobby claims that semi-automatics figure highly in the
commission of crimes. The honest truth is, we don’t know. The statistics
regarding what kind of firearm was used in a crime are detailed by type
of firearm, not by action, and the vast majority of crime guns are never
identified or recovered.

The most recent numbers available the from the Canadian Centre for
Justice Statistics show 74.9 per cent of firearms used in crimes are
handguns, a type of firearm that has been very tightly regulated since
1934. Since the introduction of the current legislation banning some 60
per cent of all civilian-owned handguns, handgun murders have increased
83 per cent. Sobering but true.

It also shows that most of these guns have never been registered and are
likely smuggled into the country by organized crime. A study by the
Vancouver police department found that 97 per cent of firearms seized in
2003 did not originate in Canada. In fact, Statistics Canada shows that
only three per cent of all firearms used in homicides in 2005 were
registered to the accused murderer.

The point is, semi-automatic firearms have been around for a very long
time and are commonly used in Canada. They are not more powerful nor
more dangerous than any other firearm and are certainly not worthy of
the scare-mongering tactics presented by anti-gun groups to influence
the media. They are not “assault rifles.”

Canada is a very peaceful place, and tragedies like Dawson College
should taken for what they are — a terrible anomaly.

Tony Bernardo is executive director of the Canadian Institute for
Legislative Action.

The Second Amendment IS Homeland Security !