Lorne Gunter has long been a worthy writer of common sense articles when it comes to crime, gun laws and effects of dubious regulation. This article is an excellent example, simple, to the point and loaded with checkable facts.
Gun registry proven worthless
Statistics Canada report comes to defence of Canada’s sport shooters, hunters and collectors
By Lorne Gunter ,QMI Agency
First posted: Saturday, December 08, 2012 07:00 PM CST
As soon as I saw the news releases this week from Statistics Canada announcing the annual publication of national murder figures, I readied my arguments about why the increase had nothing to do with the Harper government’s dismantling of the gun registry.
I knew the gun-banning groups would be all over the new numbers, which show a 7% increase from 2010 — a year in which Canada saw its lowest murder rate in four decades.
And I “knew” the anti-gunners would insist the rise was due to the Harper government’s dismantling of the gun registry, even though StatsCan’s latest numbers were from 2011 and the registry was not shut down until this year.
I knew the gun-controllers would jump on the increase in yet another attempt to reinstate the registry and make criminals of Canada’s law-abiding gun owners.
I needn’t have worried, though. StatsCan did my work for me. The national number-crunchers came (indirectly) to the defence of this country’s beleaguered sport shooters, hunters and gun collectors by stating very clearly that nearly all of the increase between 2010 and 2011 was due to knives. Guns weren’t to blame for the increased number of murders, nor were changes to federal gun laws.
And the last time I checked, knives weren’t included in the GUN registry.
Not only was the end of the registry not responsible for the uptick in homicides, StatsCan went further. Gun murders are at their lowest level in 50 years — half a century!
Indeed, StatsCan’s annual report was full of numbers that prove the uselessness of gun control.
For instance, some anti-gun activists will no doubt try to stretch the truth a little and claim the fact that gun crimes are so low is proof the registry worked to make the public safer.
Not so. As StatsCan points out, all murders — but especially firearms murders — have been on the decline since the mid-1970s, long before Ottawa began imposing draconian gun laws. The reason for the decline is demographics. There are simply fewer young men in the population now. And since men between the ages or 16 and 30 are the most likely to commit crime, if there are fewer of them on the street, there will be less crime.
Please read the rest here: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/12/07/gun-registry-proven-worthless
