How Many Registered Guns In Canada

Academy of Toronto professor Jooyoung Lee, an say-so on gun ownership and gun violence, lays out the facts.

A handgun is displayed by a firearm retailer in this file image. (CBC)

Sunday Edition 21:thirty The facts on gun ownership and gun offense in Canada

A national handgun ban is a Band-aid solution; it's political posturing and it volition non reduce gun-related offense in this country, says Tracey Wilson, a registered lobbyist with the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.

Following her appearance on The Sunday Edition last week, in that location was a avalanche of feedback from our listeners, many questioning the data in that interview.

In the meantime, the federal government announced this week it is launching a public consultation on the question of a national handgun ban.

Liberals to look at 'full ban' on handguns, assault weapons

Nosotros invited University of Toronto professor Jooyoung Lee, an authority on gun buying and gun violence, to follow up on terminal week'due south interview.

Jooyoung Lee, an associate professor of folklore at University of Toronto, says a gun ban would be constructive at reducing gun violence. (CBC)

Here are some of the letters we read on air:

Oliver Drerup from Carp, Ont., sent this plea: "Please seek out information about countries with very depression rates of gun crime and how they have achieved their results."

This is not political posturing. This is social science at work. - Jooyoung Lee

Lee said the evidence contradicts what Wilson had to say.

"There was a study, for example, published in a very well-respected epidemiological journal in 2016 by researchers that did a survey of 130 different studies about the effectiveness of dissimilar types of gun control restrictions," said Lee.

"One of the cadre findings that they came away with was that gun bans tend to have a very good effect in terms of reducing gun violence rates. So this is not political posturing. This is social science at work. This is researchers surveying 130 peer-reviewed manufactures and coming abroad with this conclusion."

What about Switzerland?

Wilson raised the example of Switzerland as a country where everyone has a gun and there is well-nigh no gun violence.

Sue Van Wagner of Montreal wrote to us about this.

"Most emphatically, I wish to make two points. At that place is not a gun in every Swiss household. In fact, of all the many Swiss households that I'chiliad acquainted with, I know just one that has any guns and that is hunting rifles. Swiss householders are not required to have guns. Please get your facts straight."

People grow up in a very dissimilar culture around firearms. They're taught to care for firearms responsibly. - Jooyoung Lee

Lee said that Swiss men who serve compulsory time in the armed forces are given firearms. Some return these guns to the government. In that location are approximately two one thousand thousand privately-endemic firearms in a nation of virtually 8.3 million.

"People grow up in a very different culture around firearms. They're taught to care for firearms responsibly. They're socialized into a globe where the firearm is understood as office of his duty to a country. Information technology'southward office of serving the armed services. They take classes to piece of work on marksmanship," he said.

"Just looking at the number of firearms in the country and then saying, 'Well look at this country, they have a lot of guns and the gun violence rates there are low,' is not necessarily a bang-up way to understand this puzzle."

Firearms in Canada

Wilson challenged a commonly-quoted estimate that 61 per cent of guns used in tearing crime in Canada are, in fact, bought and legally-owned in Canada. She cited the truthful figure as v per cent.

"The brusk and the long of it is that we don't take the best data regarding the origins of firearms that are being used in crimes in Canada," said Lee.

"The 61 per cent number comes from an RCMP study in 2016 ... I call up that that was an interesting moment for us to reflect on this kind of taking-for-granted wisdom that, over the years, firearms have been flowing across the edge. And it was a clue perhaps that we need to really expect at this more systematically at a national level to actually understand."

Lee went on to say that the extent of gun trafficking may be exaggerated.

"We have this Hollywood prototype that there are these international trafficking rings that bring in boatloads of guns or that accept a very sophisticated means of trafficking firearms," he said.

"But if we expect at the studies on this, we discover that the vast bulk of firearms that are used in shootings both fatal and non-fatal are being purchased legally at one signal in time. And then they're diverted."

One of the challenges is that there is inadequate funding for research in this surface area, Lee said.

The AR-fifteen fence

Some of the messages we received were about the AR-15, which the CCFR has lobbied to declassify as a "restricted" weapon in Canada.

Wilson refuted the description of it equally a military-attack rifle.

John Cushnie of Sussex, N.B., wrote: "Ms Wilson's description of the AR-fifteen is wholly incorrect. The AR-15 family of rifles was developed in the 1950s by the Armalite Corporation and saw early adoption past U.Southward. Special Forces in Vietnam. Based on this it was adapted to exist the primary combat rifle of the U.S. military becoming the Yard-sixteen. It is the same rifle."

Doug Lewis of Kendal, Ont., wrote: "As a retired police officer, I observe some of her arguments specious and misleading. For case, she did not say how hands a semi-automated AR-15 burglarize can exist converted to automated fire. I admit to having some misgivings about a full ban on firearms but I'm also increasingly concerned virtually why individuals may even so own handguns and military weapons."

Lee says he's familiar with the contend about the AR-15, sold to civilians as a semi-automated rifle, which ways that one trigger pull equals one bullet being fired. However, he adds that bump stocks, such as those used past the mass shooter in Las Vegas, essentially turn a gun like the AR-15 into an automatic assail rifle.

A closer wait at bump stocks — the new target in U.S. gun control debate

"The possibility for inflicting mass carnage is at that place, and there's likewise the possibility of outfitting these firearms with larger magazines which makes it easier for a person to shoot repetitively without having to reload," Lee said, adding that this makes it more difficult for first responders to assistance people. He added that due to the style the AR-15 fires, trauma surgeons volition confirm that it leads to massive damage to internal organs and tissues, far greater than a bullet from a handgun.

Storage of firearms

One of Wilson'southward biggest concerns was the prospect that the government might laissez passer laws that will touch the freedoms of sport shooters like herself.

The vast majority of gun owners in Canada are very responsible people who care well-nigh gun safety and gun rights - Jooyoung Lee

Cheryl Lyon of Peterborough, Ont., sent the following:

"What if these owners were required to shop their guns under lock and key at their clubs or ranges rather than at home? Of course any new legislation would have to help the clubs and ranges accommodate this modify, simply it may help create fewer opportunities to admission and sell these appurtenances."

Lee thinks this is an interesting idea.

"Police officers in Canada for the almost role too store their weapons at their police departments. There are very few officers who walk around carrying firearms and they don't go along them at home likewise. I think i thing that could sally from that is that at that place would exist less theft of firearms."

Private gun owners in Canada are not the problem, said Lee. "The vast majority of gun owners in Canada are very responsible people who intendance almost gun safety and gun rights and follow the laws to a T. But not everybody does. And that'due south why these kinds of measures are important."

He besides concurred that, while handgun bans have proven to be constructive, they are just i piece of the puzzle: "We also have to attack income disparities ... and we have to eliminate discrimination in the labour market and so that immature people can get ahead. The journalist David Simon who wrote and created The Wire has this bang-up quote, where he says, 'The street corner is always hiring.'"

WHERE DOES THE CANADIAN COALITION FOR FIREARMS RIGHTS GET ITS FUNDING?

A few listeners raised concerns about where the Canadian Coalition of Firearms Rights gets its money. There were comparisons with the National Burglarize Clan in the U.S., which receives millions of dollars from gun manufacturers.

The CCFR is funded through individual and business concern memberships. Their business concern directory is not limited to firearms companies. A business membership for the CCFR costs $100 dollars a year.

Click 'listen' above to the interview.