Gun deaths in Canada continue to decline; [BUT NOT TOTAL DEATHS]
Date: Jun 29, 2005 7:19 AM
PUBLICATION: The New Brunswick Telegraph Journal
DATE: 2005.06.29
SECTION: News
PAGE: C4
COLUMN: Canada
BYLINE: BRUCE CHEADLE Canadian Press
DATELINE: OTTAWA

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Gun deaths in Canada continue to decline; Statistics Canada report shows
death rates related to firearms lower over the past 25 years

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Gun-related deaths are trending steadily downward in Canada, says
Statistics Canada, even as high-profile shooting tragedies continue to
raise public hackles.

A report released Tuesday – as police in London, Ont., continued to
investigate Monday’s horrific murder of a mother and two children -
shows that death rates related to firearms fell by more than half for
men and by three quarters among women over the last 25 years.

Gun-related homicides, suicides and accidents all declined in relation
to the population size between 1979 and 2002, said the Statistics Canada
study based on death certificates.

But the report explicitly declines to link falling firearms mortality
with tougher gun-control laws brought in during the same period.

“You’ve got to remember there have been gun-control laws for most of
this last century, of one sort or another,” author Kathryn Wilkins said
in an interview.

The data she studied simply can’t differentiate between any number of
cause-and-effect possibilities, whether they be fewer sports hunters,
urbanization, an aging populace or tougher gun registration and storage
rules.

Ms. Wilkins noted that the 1989 Montreal massacre, in which 14 young
women were gunned down, coincided with a sharp, steady decline in gun
deaths in Canada.

“Who’s to say that tragedies like that don’t have some influence, as
well?” said the researcher – perhaps by raising public awareness of
firearms storage issues, for example.

Already this year, two high-profile shootings have reignited the debate
over Canada’s gun- control system.

A gunman in Mayerthorpe, Alta., killed four RCMP officers in March
before taking his own life with a high-powered assault rifle. And early
Monday morning in London, a man is believed to have killed a woman, two
of her three children and wounded two officers before dying himself,
possibly from return police fire.

Earlier this month, Toronto police chief Bill Blair decried a
“proliferation of illegal handguns in the hands of gangsters” on the
city’s streets.

There is evidence that the nature of gun violence is changing in Canada,
noted Ms. Wilkins. Recent StatsCan studies suggest two thirds of gun
deaths now result from handguns, up from about half during the 1990s.

But if Toronto has a particular problem, Ms. Wilkins’ research didn’t
show it. From 2000 to 2002 in Canada’s four largest cities – Calgary,
Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver – Montreal was the only one with
significantly higher gun deaths: 2.2 per 100,000 people compared with
Toronto’s 1.3.

The trend nationally belies public concern about gun violence.

Some 767 males and 49 females died from gun injuries in 2002, said
Statistics Canada.

Among males, that was a rate of 4.9 deaths for every 100,000 population,
down from 10.6 in 1979. For females the rate fell to 0.3 from 1.2 deaths
for every 100,000 Canadians.

“Overall, the stats are very, very favourable and there’s no question
the (incidence) reporting is better than ever in the past,” said Emile
Therien of the Canada Safety Council.

The figures are even more dramatic when compared with those in the
United States. An American man in 2000 was more than three times as
likely to die from a gunshot as his Canadian counterpart. American women
died seven times more often than Canadian women from gunshot wounds.

Suicides involving firearms fell from five deaths per 100,000 to two in
the period from the mid-1980s to 2002, added StatsCan.

And while other means of suicide became more common, the overall suicide
rate also declined from 14 deaths per 100,000 to 12 during the same
period – suggesting a correlation.

Ms. Wilkins said the best news in her report may be the falling
incidence of young people killed in gun accidents.

In 1979, the rate of deaths related to firearms was highest among young
people aged 15 to 24. Those age differences have largely disappeared.

In 2002, just six people under age 25 died in gun accidents.

“That’s a very good news story. It probably does reflect safety and
storage (improvements),” said Ms. Wilkins.

Therien doesn’t hesitate to attribute the change to tighter gun
legislation, specifically the contentious, over-budget long gun registry
of 1995 that critics love to hate.

“Forget the vocal minority that’s against it,” said the longtime
president of the Canada Safety Council.

“Public health officials, safety people and the police community . . .
they were all in favour of this legislation. It goes on and on. What
else do you want? It’s not perfect, but it’s good.”