Editorial: Gun stats tell the story
Date: Jul 16, 2005 11:58 AM
PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2005.07.16
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PNAME: Arguments
PAGE: B7
SOURCE: CanWest Newspapers

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Gun stats tell the story

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THE PROVINCES: Excerpts from editorials that appeared this week in CanWest newspapers
across the land.

Gun stats tell the story

Vancouver Sun: Rarely a day goes by that we don’t hear of someone, somewhere in
Canada, suffering a grisly death as a result of a firearm. Most recently, the high-profile
gun murders of a mother and her two children in London, Ont., and of four RCMP officers
in Mayerthorpe, Alta., can easily give the impression that gun violence is out of
control.

But impressions are not reality, and the reality of the situation is quite different.
While Canada has always had relatively low levels of gun violence, a recent report
from Statistics Canada shows that gun deaths have decreased dramatically in the
last quarter of a century.

Titled Deaths Involving Firearms, the report confirms that between 1979 and 2002,
firearms-related death rates fell by more than half in men (from 10.6 to 4.9 per
100,000 people) and by three-quarters in women (from 1.2 to 0.3 per 100,000). Further,
the number of homicides involving firearms decreased from 71 in 1979 to just 31
in 2002.

The general trend of declining gun deaths is unquestionably positive, and it’s something
everyone should keep in mind when confronted with another high-profile gun-related
tragedy.

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National Post Editorial – Gun registry is no lifesaver
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/2005_article588.htm

Calgary Herald Editorial – Gun-death decline not linked to registry
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publications/2005_article587.htm

BUT DID OUR GUN LAWS ACTUALLY SAVE ANY LIVES?
By Garry Breitkreuz, MP, Conservative Firearms Critic – June 30, 2005
http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publicate/Columns/2005_june30.htm