Handguns in Canada

According to Statistics Canada, the homicide rate in Canada popped up to 2.04 per 100,000 people in 2005.  The rolling average for the past 40 years is 2.17 homicides per 100,000, so we’re lower than the average.  This doesn’t sound like many, but there was a troubling factoid buried in the data:  222 of the 658 murders in Canada in 2005 were committed with firearms.

(I have fired a number of weapons in my time.  I learned how to handle weapons safely at a young age.  I have hunted quail, partridge and deer, so I"m not some anti-gun nut.  Relax, OK?)

Canada has always had fairly sensible firearms laws.  You can have as many long guns as you want, as long as you register them, take and pass a firearms safety course and store the weapons in a locked firearms safe in your home.  Firearms under 18 inches long?  Generally, forget about it.  There is a process for target pistol shooters, but be assured it is complex, involves an intense background check and stringent rules for transport, storage and registration.        

Weapons are normal in the countryside to dispose of varmints and, of course, for hunting.  In parts of the country, Yellowknife, Churchill and some parts of Algonquin Park, going into the wilderness without a weapon is very stupid.  Bears, notably the black, grizzly and polar varieties look upon humans in a sleeping bag or tent as a tasty snack with a pretty wrapper, at certain times of the year. 

In Toronto, where I live, I have not seen bears rambling around loose.  Or deer, moose, partridge, quail, or ducks.  Which explains why there isn’t much hunting in this city of 4 million people.  But there are firearm homicides. 

2005 was called the Year of the Gun in Toronto, as there were several high-profile handgun murders that peaked with the Boxing Day murder of Jane Creba downtown on Yonge Street as two gangs shot at each other.  Jane Creba was an innocent bystander who was killed with a stray shot.

Today, the gun homicide rate in Toronto is down from 2005, but the mere fact that handguns are being used, is the troubling part.  Handguns, being by definition under 18-inches long, have nothing whatsoever to do with hunting, except hunting humans.  Since responsible firearms owners are not the problem, it is the illegal firearms owners we want to discourage.

I think I might have a solution.  It is called the Double-Double.  A double-double is two cream and two sugar, which is coffee and donut shop shorthand at Tim Horton’s.

As the law is currently written, no handguns are allowed.  No change there.  Convicted of a crime?  The usual sentencing rules apply.  Let’s say it was break and enter and theft over $200.  Seven to ten years is around normal.  Then you apply the double-double rule after the conviction, as part of the sentencing. 

If you are caught with a firearm during commission of the crime?  Double it.  If you discharge the firearm during commission of the crime?  Double it again.  A seven year stretch now becomes a 28 year stretch.  As an added disincentive, double-double removes all parole:  The guilty party serves the full time.

When it comes to gang-bangers, the usual conviction is attempted manslaughter.  Five to fifteen is the sentencing norm.  Perpetrated with a firearm that was discharged during the incident?  It could be as much as 45 years or as little as 15, but still, no parole.

After one or two convictions like that, the message will be sent to the gang-bangers:  No guns allowed.  Settle whatever the beef is with fists, boots, knives, bats, chains or stern letters to the Editor.

I’m perfectly willing to let judges have some leeway here as there will always be extenuating circumstances, but these guidelines should be applied more often than not.  I’m defining ‘more often’ as 98% of the time.

As for the rest of the legal firearm owners in Canada?  Nothing changes.  You can hunt, shoot targets, skeet shoot or just plink at bottles for recreation.  Enjoy your firearms as long as you have a Firearms Acquisition Certificate, have taken and passed a gun safety course and have an approved firearm safe in your place of residence.