Canada debates a gun ban An argument about firearms will help to shape next year’s election

When a man with a rifle charged into Canada’s parliament in 2014, Michelle Rempel, a Conservative politician, was among the people who fled from a caucus room as gunfire rang out around them. Security guards killed the intruder, who had shot a sentry outside. When a man with a rifle charged into Canada’s parliament in 2014, Michelle Rempel, a Conservative politician, was among the people who fled from a caucus room as gunfire rang out around them. Security guards killed the intruder, who had shot a sentry outside. Canadians. At the same time, Parliament is considering a bill, c-71, that would tighten background checks and record-keeping. The argument over these proposals will help to shape the parliamentary election due in October 2019. Canada’s gun debate differs from that in the United States. Canadians, unlike Americans, have no constitutional right to bear arms. Sales and possession of firearms are permitted but tightly restricted. Buyers must undergo background checks, take safety courses and get a separate permit to transport firearms. The process often takes months. The purchase of a gun for self-defence is allowed only if buyers can show that the police cannot protect them. Canada has issued just two such permits. Despite these obstacles, Canada has the fifth-highest rate of gun ownership among 56 countries: 34.7 per 100 people, according to the Small Arms Survey, based in Geneva. That is far behind the United States’ rate of 120.5 but higher than that of Germany, France and Mexico. Ranked by the number of deaths from firearms as a share of the population, Canada is 107th among 195 countries, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle. (The United States is 20th.) Yet Canada’s discussion of guns is becoming more American. Horrors like the killings on November 7th of 13 people in Thousand Oaks, California, and of 11 people at a syna- gogue in Pittsburgh on October 27th receive saturation coverage. Pro-gun Canadians use arguments honed in the United States, including, increasingly, the need to own them for self-defence. Anti-gun activists point to American shootings as an argument for enacting a ban. Source: economist.com/