There was no belaboring the point in Canada’s proposed new gun legislation on May 30. But to show the gravity of the matter, the new bill that proposed a “national freeze” on importing, buying or selling of handguns was unveiled by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Essentially, the bill also comprises red flag laws that give judges the power to temporarily withdraw guns from potentially dangerous individuals and slaps stiffer penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking. Not that the world has heard much about gun crime in Canada. Experts believe that the move was preemptive to ensure that a vicious gun culture of violence, like that existing in the United States, does not take root.
According to a recent police report, there were 743 homicide victims in the country in 2020, a rate of 1.95 per 100,000 people. But authorities are concerned that after falling for years, firearm-related violent crime is on the rise again. A report released by Statistics Canada on May 29 shows that the rate of firearm-related violent crime in 2009 stood at 29 per 100,000 people. This dropped to 19 in 2013, before returning to 29 in 2020.
Gun control is really common sense. Now, the United States is in a crisis. The month of May recorded some of the most atrocious gun crimes in the country’s history. A school shooting in Uldvale, Texas, the 39th school shooting this year, claimed the lives of at least 21 people, including 19 children. A couple of weeks before another shooting in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York led to the deaths of 10 people.
Well, Canada’s proposed legislation should help its next door neighbor put its act together without further ado, before the spiraling gun crime tears the country apart. You cannot have your cake and eat it. The U.S. cannot crave for public safety in its crime ridden towns and cities, but also continue shooting itself in the foot by dishing out gun licenses like confetti. It’s the Wild West all over again – minus the chariots.
Owing to its liberal gun laws, the U.S. records hundreds of mass shootings every year. Statistics show that in 2020 more than 45,000 Americans died from shooting, whether homicide or suicide, an increase of 25 percent over a five-year period, and a 43 percent increase from 2010.
The riddle yet to be solved revolves around the real beneficiary of spiraling gun crime in the U.S. Why is it that there is generally little determination by the political class in curbing the blood bath of innocent people? It is a cancer that an opinion published on Xinhuanet by Huaxia dated June 21, 2021 noted: “Vowing to crack down on gun violence has already become a procedural political show of successive U.S. governments.”
The trend is to sell as many guns as possible, as fast as possible. Gun ownership in the country has shot up drastically to a ratio of 120.5 firearms per 100 residents, up from 88 per 100 in 2011. This is the highest in the world.
Although it operates on a different social, economic and political dispensation from the U.S., China is another common sense case study of effective gun control. Access to guns by the general public is only under very strict conditions, with the possible exemption of those with hunting permits and some ethnic minorities.
For obvious reasons, the only people allowed to use firearms include personnel operating in the law enforcement, military, paramilitary, security and police sectors. Consequently, gun violence is rare in China, with negligible fatalities from the use of civilian firearms. Only a few dozen gun crimes are recorded every year.
Interestingly, guns and gunpowder were first invented in China centuries ago. True, the country has had its ugly experiences with guns. But it was a stage that was inevitable, specifically during the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party after a long rebellion against the Nationalist government.
With the dystopian outlook of the American society, one can only conclude that the authorities have conveniently refused to use a common sense approach on this crisis. They have even ignored the voice of reason by those who understand the value of common sense gun legislation.
One such legislator is U.S. Congressman for New York’s 25th congressional district Joseph Morelle who drafted a “Common Sense Gun Reform” bill. Morelle arguments are simple and do not need long and technical debates. In one of his lobbying statements he argues that “it shouldn’t be easier to obtain a gun than it is to get your driver’s license.”
Among other “common sense” bills, Morelle has sponsored gun legislation that, among other checks, prohibit the possession of any firearm that is undetectable by airport-level detection devices, require background checks on every gun sale or transfer, require three-day waiting period before a person may receive a gun after making a purchase, ban the sale, transfer, manufacture, and importation of military-style assault weapons and high capacity ammunition magazines and, ensure dangerous individuals are prohibited from purchasing or owning firearms.
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