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From the Executive Director's Desk:
Firearm Legislation: A Perspective on Gun Control

The control of guns as proposed in the government's legislative reforms has become a controversial issue. Perhaps nowhere in the country is it more controversial than in British Columbia where opposition to the proposed legislation has been very vocal. Despite the fact that the support for gun control in this province is less visible, polls suggest that most residents favour stricter controls. The fact is that British Columbia is not immune to problems with firearms. Guns are lethal weapons, and are used to kill women, men and children in this province as in other provinces in Canada.

Guns in Family Violence

Much of the debate on gun control has focused on the need to control "the criminal element" rather than "legitimate" gun owners. For the large number of women who face violence from their partners in their homes, this distinction is meaningless. Most men who are violent toward their partners are not recognised as "criminals" by their neighbours. In British Columbia, roughly one quarter of women killed by their husbands are shot. These men are not considered a part of the "criminal element", to their friends and neighbours and community they are known as law abiding citizens.

In the period 1974 to 1992, 1,877 spousal homicides occurred Canada-wide. Of these spousal homicide victims, 1,426 (76%) were wives and 451 (24%) were husbands. Firearms were used to murder 599 (42%) of the wives and 122 (27%) of the husbands.

The Institute recently published a study of Homicide in the Family. The geographic area covered was in and around the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, and the time frame was 1984 through 1991. Cases of family homicide identified in this period and location involved 148 victims and 122 perpetrators. One quarter of all victims were shot. Twenty three perpetrators committed suicide, and six made a serious attempt. Most of the perpetrators who committed suicide shot themselves. While some perpetrators took definite steps to obtain a gun to commit their crime, many already owned one or more. There is little question that some of the murders would not have occurred had it been more difficult to obtain a gun.

While crime is often perceived as a "big city" problem, rural areas have higher rates of domestic violence involving firearms. While gun control is only one small part of the response needed to counter violence against women, it is an important component. Front line transition house staff report that women are frequently threatened by their partners and many of these threats involve firearms.

Guns are used as instruments of power and control. The ability to issue and enforce prohibition orders is an important preventative measure to assist in ending this intimidation. The information provided by registration of all firearms is required in order to do this more effectively.

Public and Community Health Perspectives

Increasingly, intentional and unintentional injuries are being treated not as accidents but as preventable events. Although there is limited information about gun ownership in Canada because long guns (rifles and shotguns) are not registered, roughly one quarter of B.C. households have firearms, according to a 1991 survey by Angus Reid.

While British Columbia firearm death rates are comparable to the national average, firearms injury rates are 33% higher. British Columbia has an above average firearm homicide rate (1.0 versus 0.7 deaths per 100,000), but has firearm suicide and accidental death rates which are similar to the national averages, according to data from 1989 to 1992.

Hospitalisations for gun shot injuries exceed those in eastern provinces and are 33% above the national average. British Columbia is also above the national average in self-inflicted firearms injuries (1.6 per 100,000 versus 1.1 per 100,000), firearms injuries inflicted by others (1.0 versus 0.7 per 100,000) and accidental firearms injuries (2.4 versus 2.1 per 100,000). These represent a significant burden to the health care system.

Health professionals in Canada and the U.S. have in recent years focused their attention on the prevention of gunshot injury and death, and have concluded that access to firearms is a factor. The Canadian Public Health Association presented evidence on the health care and social costs associated with firearms injury and death. Many homicides and suicides are impulsive and can be prevented. There is compelling evidence linking access to weapons with murder and suicide rates on an international level as well as across the country.

Provinces with high rates of gun ownership also tend to have high rates of gun injury and death. Studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine reveal that despite the myth of arming for self-protection, homes with guns are five times more likely to be the scene of suicides and three times more likely to experience a homicide than homes without guns. I am familiar with an incident in the United States when a women who had a gun to protect herself, confronted a burglar in her home with her gun, and was shot and killed by the burglar. Where guns are kept loaded and unlocked the risks of accidental as well as deliberate violence increase dramatically.

Suicides

Those in opposition to this legislation maintain that people intent upon killing themselves will find the means. In fact, many suicides, particularly among adolescents, can be prevented. Suicides involving guns have dramatically lower survival rates (7%) than if guns are not involved (65%). While it may be true that some individuals will use another means to attempt suicide if one is blocked, few means leave as little chance of rescue as firearms.

In 1991 over 300 Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24 died from gunshot wounds. Experts from the Council on Suicide Prevention and the Canadian Public Health Association argued in support of this legislation that the measures in Bill C-68 will help reduce impulsive suicides, particularly among youth. Many firearms accidents involve children and youth who gain access to firearms which have not been adequately stored. Registration and thus an increased sense of owner responsibility can help reduce the risk of such tragedies occurring.

The Need for Gun Registration

Despite popular perceptions, most murders do not involve strangers but family members and acquaintances. Access to firearms makes it easy for a dispute to escalate to a murder. Rifles and shotguns are the weapon of choice in many domestic murders, which are usually the culmination of an escalating cycle of violence. Information about who owns what guns would allow the police to intervene before it is too late. Every year approximately 13,000 prohibition orders are issued, empowering police to seize firearms from individuals considered to be a risk. These efforts, however, are impeded by the lack of information about who owns what guns.

Without a registration system, safe storage requirements are unenforceable and may be generally ignored. Gun owners need not report lost or stolen guns if there is no way to trace them back to their source.

Break and enters are the principal source of guns for young offenders. Many suicides, accidents and crimes, particularly those involving youth, are impulsive and could be prevented if firearms were not easily stolen. If their names are attached to their firearms, gun owners are likely to be more responsible.

Gun registration as proposed in this legislation would be less rigourous than the systems we now have to register cars and drivers. We also accept registration of dogs, cats in some places in Alberta, retirement savings, land ownership and much more. Why should ownership of fire arms be any different? There is a responsibility attached to owning firearms that are capable of causing instant death or injury.

Guns are used for a variety of purposes. One of these purposes is to threaten violence. In homes in which there are threats of punishment for not respecting the wishes or whims of the dominant partner, having a gun at hand makes the threat much more serious. When threats of violence are backed by a gun, women and children have little freedom. As the statistics show, their very survival is at stake. Ownership of a gun is a privilege that should be denied to one who uses it to control the behaviour of a partner or child. A registration system is essential to dealing effectively with those who abuse the privilege of gun ownership.

Bill C-68 represents a reasonable balance between the interests of gun owners and the public safety. This legislation not only addresses the problems of today but it is an investment in our own and our children's future. The changes to this legislation must be coupled with education. By this we include not just firearms training but increasing awareness about the risks associated with firearms, and the need for all firearms owners to behave responsibly.

As we have seen with child abuse and violence against women, an emphasis on random acts by strangers tends to conceal the reality of the problem and its solutions. Controls on the legitimate owners of firearms are no more an effort to "punish them" than are controls on responsible drivers. We as Canadians have a tradition of accepting reasonable regulations in the interests of public safety, and the well being of the community at large.

Jill Hightower

Bibliography

Canada, Department of Justice. Domestic Homicides Involving the Use of Firearms. March 1992.

Canada, Centre for Justice Statistics. Number and Rate (Per 100,000) of Total Firearms Deaths By Jurisdiction, 1989-1990 Canada.

Centre for Justice Statistics. Number and Rate (Per 100,000) Of Total Hospitalisations Due To Injuries With Firearms, By Jurisdiction, 1988/89-1991/92.

Canadian Public Health Association. Submission to the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs.

Card, J.J. Lethality of Suicide Methods, Omega 5, 1994.

Carrington, P.J. et. al, "Gun Control and Suicide in Ontario". Journal of Psychiatry, April 1994.

Cooper Mary. Wasted Lives : The Tragedy of Homicide in the Family. BC Institute on Family Violence, 1992.

Kellerman, A.L. et. al, "Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home." N. Engl. J. of Medicine, June 12, 1994.

Kellerman, A.L. "Suicide in the Home in Relation to Gun Ownership." N. Engl. J. of Med. Aug. 13, 1992.

Killias, M. :International Correlations between gun ownership and rates of homicide and suicide". CMAJ, May 15, 1993.

Leonard, K. "Firearm Deaths in Canadian Adolescents and Young Adults." Canadian Journal of Public Health, March-April 1994.

Reid, Angus. Firearms Ownership In Canada, 1991.