Urban gun ban won’t work

Arecent Ekos poll suggests the majority of Canadians (69 per cent) favour a ban on firearms in urban areas. Aside from the logistics of how that might work for, say, hunters who live in cities but hunt in outlying areas, one question worth considering is: What harm would such a ban reduce?

According to information compiled by the BBC, drawing from the FBI, the U.K. Home Office Homicide Index, Statistics Canada and Crime Statistics Australia, gunrelated killings as a percentage of all homicides were 64 per cent in the United States (2016), but only 30.5 per cent in Canada (2015).

However, the same data show the percentages of gunrelated killings for Australia were 13 per cent (2013-14) and England and Wales were just 4.5 per cent (2015-16). Clearly, we could be doing more in Canada. But is an urban gun ban a solution?

According to Justice Department figures, roughly 80 per cent of firearm-related deaths in Canada are a result of suicide. Furthermore, in contrast with the United States, where the firearm used in a suicide is usually a handgun, in Canada, the data show long guns to be the weapon of choice.

It might be that a majority of Canadians living in metropolitan areas would barely notice they were no longer permitted to use guns in the city, but that’s not the point. Gun fatalities are not merely an urban problem — they are a societal one. A solution that looks only at a legislative remedy, without including a safety and health-centred approach, is incomplete.

Winnipeg Free Press