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by Joan Vincenten
executive director, Alberta Centre for Injury Control and Research
Let's face it: Guns are dangerous. Shotguns and rifles are designed to kill - and do it efficiently and effectively. If we want to live in a safe and caring Alberta, it makes sense to ensure these weapons are used for legitimate purposes-not to kill or maim our friends or family.
Unfortunately, when talk turns to preventing needless injury due to the misuse of firearms, Albertans especially seem to view any attempt to reduce firearm-related injuries as an affront to their personal human rights. Ironically, it's in these pockets of outrage where we find some of the highest gun death and injury rates in the country. Study after study, both in Canada and internationally, show that more guns mean more gun-related injury.
In Alberta alone, between 1989 and 1995, there was a yearly average of 22 firearm homicides, 134 firearm suicides and 167 firearm-related hospitalizations (between 1989 and 1994), giving Alberta one of the highest firearm death rates in the country (6.2 per 100,000 compared to a national average of 4.6 per 100,000). It's no coincidence Alberta trails only the Yukon and the Northwest Territories in gun ownership, with 39 per cent of households owning at least one gun, according to 1997 Department of Justice figures.
Unfortunately, it is often Alberta's children who pay the price. The rate of children killed with guns in Alberta is almost twice the national average and it is in fact as high as in Israel and Northern Ireland. What's even more tragic is that many of these deaths are preventable. Most often, the firearms used in these incidents are rifles or shotguns that have not been properly stored.
Bill C-68, which took effect Dec. 1 with the opening of a national gun registry, states that unrestricted rifle and shotgun owners have until 2001 to obtain a licence for their weapons, and until 2003 to register their guns with the national gun registry.
Howls of protest have surrounded the legislation, many surrounding the effectiveness of such a system and objecting to infringements on how guns are used in our society. Let's remember, Bill C-68 is not a magic pill-it won't instantly eradicate gun-related injuries by itself. It's also not designed to wrench shotguns and rifles away from people who use them for farm work or enjoy hunting. Instead, it is part of a much larger strategy to make Albertans, and all Canadians, safer by reducing the number of gun-related injuries and ensuring gun owners can continue to use rifles and shotguns in a safe and responsible manner.
Registration will assist in police investigations. There are an estimated 5 million unrestricted rifles and shotguns in Canada. Currently, police have no way of knowing who owns these weapons. While police have access to lists of restricted gun owners, their investigations of incidents involving rifles and shotguns are often slowed because there is no way to match seized weapons to their owners.
The new legislation will also discourage the storage of unwanted or unneeded rifles and shotguns, thus reducing the number of easily-accessible weapons in the province. According to public-health officials, half the firearms in Canadian households had not been used in the previous year. The registration procedure will prompt gun owners to consider their own firearm needs. Additionally, police will now be much more effective in ensuring compliance with safe firearm storage regulations. It will be easier to track gun theft and make sure licenced shotgun and rifle owners store their guns properly.
Restricting access to rifles and shotguns will put a significant dent in the third most common means of injury death for Canadians aged 15-24 (behind only motor-vehicle collisions and suicide by other means). Reduced access will make it tougher for young Canadians to take their own lives. Will people still commit suicide? Unfortunately, yes. But for many whose decision to take their own lives is made due to convenient access to a firearm-one of the most lethal means of committing suicide available-it can mean the difference between life and death.
Is the gun registry a waste of money? Some estimates peg the cost to society of gun-related injury at over $6 billion annually. More than 1,300 people are killed due to gun-related injury each year in Canada and one thousand more are injured. The cost of Bill C-68 to the average gun owner? A $60 licence fee per gun every 5 years and a $10 registration fee for each new weapon. Some would argue the bigger waste of taxpayer dollars is the loss-both financial and societal-caused by needless firearm-related injuries. You do the math.
Obviously, a career criminal is not likely to jog down to the registry office tomorrow to register his weaponry. But that's not what Bill C-68's shotgun and rifle provisions are all about. The legislation targets the problem of weapons, originally intended for other uses, being used to injure people either intentionally or unintentionally. It speaks to the majority of Albertans-people who want to make sure the guns in our province aren't used to kill or hurt people.
This legislation is not the whole solution, but if properly implemented, Bill C-68 will help prevent gun death and injury in this province by helping restrict improper use of rifles and shotguns.
The Alberta Centre for Injury Control & Research, like other injury prevention groups, is committed to a long-term strategy for the reduction of gun control injuries. And we won't succeed until we, as a society, start taking responsibility for these dangerous weapons in our midst.
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