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First Monday and Every Monday |
America's Biggest Export? Gun Violence |
| A surge in violence in Toronto has produced a record number of gun homicides this year, and some Canadian officials are pointing the finger at the United States.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and Toronto Mayor David Miller blamed lax US gun laws and illegal gun trafficking across the Canada/US border for the rise in gun violence after a gun fight broke out on a busy street, killing an innocent 15-year-old girl who was out shopping with her parents the day after Christmas.
“What happened yesterday was appalling. You just don’t expect it in a Canadian city,” the mayor told The Associated Press.
Toronto had 78 murders in 2005, including 52 gun-related deaths—almost twice as many as in 2004. By contrast, Chicago, which has a similar population of nearly 3 million, had 445 murders in last year, approximately 75 percent of which involved guns.
“The US is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto,” said Miller “It’s a sign that the lack of gun laws in the US is allowing guns to flood across the border that are literally being used to kill people in the streets of Toronto.”
Others disagree, citing evidence that much of the violence has been gang related, and that it should be dealt with as a gang problem – not a gun problem. This theory was fed by two highly publicized gang murders that stunned the city in November when a 17-year-old boy was shot and killed while attending the funeral of a friend that had been murdered just days before.
Both Martin and Miller concede that poverty and gangs have both contributed to the increase in violence. However, they both maintain that guns are a major factor. Martin says that 50 percent of guns recovered at crime scenes in Canada are smuggled from the US, and has pledged to ban all handguns if his Liberal party is re-elected in the Jan 23 parliamentary elections.
Canadian authorities say about half of all illegal handguns seized annually by police are smuggled over the border from the US, the other half are stolen or bought illegally within Canada or over the internet. Canadian customs officials confiscated 1,500 guns at the US border in 2004 – and that’s just from checking just three percent of cars - so they could be missing nearly 50,000 guns.
Canada has always had stronger regulations on guns than the United States. Canada has required licensing of handgun owners and registration of handguns since the 1930’s. Permits are restricted to target shooters with proof of a gun club membership, collectors, and a small number of self-protection permits.
Gun laws vary greatly in the US, but for the most part, anyone who is not prohibited by federal or state law from possessing a firearm can buy any type of gun from a federally licensed dealer. Furthermore those who are prohibited from possessing firearms can easily purchase guns on the secondary market (i.e. gun shows, estate sales, newspaper classifieds, etc.).
As a result handgun ownership in Canada is relatively small in relation to the United States, as shown in the table below.
On a per capita basis handgun ownership in the United States is 10 times that of Canada. IPGV considers this gap in handgun ownership to be the greatest reason why the US has a murder rate four times that of Canada. Toronto’s close proximity to the US puts it at risk as well. In general, the U.S has a handgun homicide rate 15 times that of greater Canada.
Wendy Cukier, president of the Toronto-based Coalition for Gun Control says that Canada needs to step up its border controls. “We need support for our law enforcement to do undercover work to catch gun thieves and smugglers,” she said, “It is important that the US be forced to own up to its role as the most violent industrialized society and its role in fuelling violence in other countries.
Up Next: January 16: The Case for a Handgun Ban in America
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