Reply #138: Canada doesn't outlaw handguns, and your gun-death stats were even lower in the mid-90s... [View All]

[benEzra]

back when Canadians could legally own more guns than Americans can (thanks to our 18 USC 922(r) import restrictions that you guys don't have). There is more paperwork involved to own guns there than here, but it's not as different as you might think.

In the U.S., those with legal access to guns (i.e., adults with clean records who have never been adjudicated mentally incompetent) commit a fairly small percentage of murders. According to Mayor Bloomberg (no friend of gun owners), 90% of shooters in New York City murders have prior criminal records, and most would be legally barred to so much as touch a gun, could not pass the background check to purchase, etc.

What we do have in the U.S., and your stats back up IMHO, is an insanely militaristic approach to the drug issue that creates huge profit margins, gives rise to inevitable turf wars, and makes the relationship between the police and many inner-city residents very "us vs. them." We also have abysmal mental-health care in this country (particularly for the working class), we work the longest hours with the least time off of any industrialized nation (even Japan), we have a huge rich-poor gap compounded by a similar gap in health-care access, etc. And focusing on new gun bans only ensures that those other issues will not get addressed, just as it did in 1994.