Re: Rick Zemanek’s March 2 editorial, Do our gun laws really need fixing?
I read with interest Mr. Zemanek’s column about my recent Yahoo.com interview.
To that end I thought that it might be worthwhile for him to consider the evidence-based research which supports the point of view of Canada’s National Firearms Association, and refutes his shallow red-herring fallacies and emotionally-based comments.
Persons wishing to examine the evidence will want to consider the peer-reviewed study entitled Canadian Firearms Legislation and Effects on Homicide 1974 to 2008 by Dr. Caillin Langmann, MD, PhD, as published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence last year.
Dr. Langmann concluded that: “This study failed to demonstrate a beneficial association between legislation and firearm homicide rates between 1974 and 2008.”
The main factor in violence reduction is not gun control, but rather an aging population.
The gun control legislation in Canada has done nothing but provide hardship and legal difficulty for otherwise innocent Canadians who own firearms.
Making people into paperwork criminals and putting them in jail to push a social agenda is bad public policy that does nothing to prevent violent acts.
Certainly the evildoers in high-profile Canadian shootings either had fulfilled all the legal requirements, or simply ignored them.
No piece of paper ever prevented the misuse of any object for ill-purpose.
Canada’s firearms laws are misdirected and are more about trying to control innocent people than to prevent criminal misuse.
I trust that this information is helpful.
Sheldon Clare
President,
Canada’s National Firearms Association