More on Canadian Crime

Don't blame American guns The kerfuffle started when Paul Martin cited a statistic - 50% of guns used in crime come from the US - that has no basis in fact. Here John Lott has some more interesting facts that are not cluttering the Canadian discussion.

Despite spending over 2 billion dollars on a gun registry, Canada has no clue where the guns used in crime come from.

In Toronto, which keeps some data on guns, Paul Culver, a senior Crown Attorney, claims U.S. guns are a "small part" of his city's problem.

Canada's gun control has not reduced crime. "Canada's murder rate rising 12% last year" has caused politicians to look for someone to blame.

Canada believes in Gun Control. I guess they have ignored the UK and Australia.

The experiences of the U.K. and Australia, two island nations whose borders are much easier to control and monitor, should also give Canadian gun controllers pause. The British government banned handguns in 1997 but recently reported that gun crime in England and Wales nearly doubled in the four years from 1998-99 to 2002-03.

Since 1996, serious violent crime has soared by 69%: Robbery is up by 45% and murders up by 54%. Before the law, armed robberies had fallen by 50% from 1993 to 1997, but as soon as handguns were banned, the robbery rate shot back up, almost back to 1993 levels. The crooks still had guns, but not their victims.

The immediate effect of Australia's 1996 gun-control regulations was similar. Crime rates averaged 32% higher in the six years after the law was passed (from 1997 to 2002) than in 1995. The same comparisons for armed robbery rates showed an increase of 74%.

But what's a good Socialist to do? Champion individual responsibility? Not likely. [via John Lott]