Miller's gun club ban will backfire |
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Washington's ban on handguns, our beloved mayor warned this would add to gun violence in Toronto.
The mayor is out to lunch -- fear mongering. Again.
Under Mayor David Miller's prodding, city council recently voted 31-9 to ban gun clubs in Toronto, hopefully en route to making Toronto a gun-free city.
Superficially, it's convenient for those who blame guns for the violence that has been blossoming on our streets for years, to argue that the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 defence of the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms) will result in more guns coming into Toronto. This is simply ducking our problem and passing the buck.
But it's our mayor's view, as he told the CBC: "The easy supply of handguns in the U.S. leads directly to people being killed in Toronto. ... It's that direct."
It's also nonsense.
Practically speaking, the U.S. court's decision is likely to have little effect here. There's already no shortage of illegal guns in Toronto -- never has been -- and this is unlikely to change no matter what the U.S. Supremes decide, or what Mayor Miller and fellow travellers ordain against guns.
In reality, overturning Washington's ban on handguns may even make that city safer, and other cities in the U.S. safer. We don't like to consider that possibility, because it goes against the grain of our precious Canadian prejudices.
The law banning handguns in Washington homes came into effect in 1977 -- a year in which there were 192 murders. By 1989, and for the next six years, Washington had the reputation of being "Murder Capital of the U.S." with over 400 murders per year, peaking in 1991 with 482 murders.
This, in a city with a population of under 600,000 where handguns were banned.
Put another way, when the handgun ban was introduced in Washington, the D.C. murder rate was about 28 per 100,000 inhabitants. Fifteen years later, it was 80 per 100,000. By 2005, after a change of local government, the murder rate was back to what it was before the handgun ban -- 29 per 100,000 of population.
ACHIEVED VERY LITTLE
So what did the gun ban achieve? Very little.
In the U.S. and elsewhere (Britain), it's been pretty well proven that when citizens have guns in their homes, they are far less likely to be burglarized or robbed when they are at home. Similarly, when states like Florida passed laws permitting responsible citizens to carry concealed weapons, random shootings dropped precipitously.
What happens in the U.S. doesn't necessarily apply to Canada, but the sign carried by one demonstrator at last week's Supreme Court decision is worth considering: "If guns kill people ... do pens misspell words?"
Gene Healy, of the Cato Institute, a non-profit policy research foundation, found the murder rate in Washington is 55% higher than before the gun laws went into effect.
There is no shortage of research material on the effects of laws restricting guns -- or even registering them. It's unlikely that Mayor Miller and those with preconceived notions are interested in facts that refute their convictions.
MURDER RATE
For instance, in the state of Virginia, which is flush with privately owned guns, the murder rate in Arlington, across the river from Washington, was 2.1 per 100,000 residents at a time when it was 46.4 per 100,000 in gun-prohibited Washington.
While there is some shock in Canada at the U.S. Supreme Court's seeming support of guns in the hands of citizens, a closer look indicates that Chief Justice Antonin Scalia made it clear the ruling applies only to handguns and rifles (self-defence and hunting), not to assault weapons, sawed-off shotguns, or "dangerous and unusual weapons."
As for Canada, handguns have had to be registered since 1930, yet they are still today's murder-weapon of choice.
It's doubtful Miller's campaign will have any effect on those whose solution to personal disputes is to pull the trigger -- they, not guns, are the ones who should be banned. Or at least deported or put in prisons.
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