This How (Un)Well Canadian Gun Control Is Working

Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP

Canada is pretty proud of all the gun control they've enacted lately. Over the last handful of years, they went to a set of gun laws that weren't terribly dissimilar to ours in some ways to one of the more restrictive schemes anywhere in the world.

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But I'm sure many people are OK with that so long as violent crime drops.

After all, scared people will often take any amount of infringement on their rights just to feel safe. The problem is that if it doesn't work, these people don't take a step back and think about how that didn't work. They just demand more of what failed.

But I'm sure Canada is fine, right?

Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

In Hamilton, there have been 58 shootings as of Nov. 4, compared to 35 for all of last year — a record for the city, according to Staff Sgt. Steve Bereziuk. 

He leads the Hamilton Police Service's shooting response team, one of the few police units of its kind in Canada, recently formed to address the rise in gun violence there.

"These shootings are occurring specifically at all hours of the day but what we're starting to see is a trend of daytime shootings and not just daytime shootings, but shootouts between individuals and involving more than one firearm," Bereziuk said.

He said there have been several notably disturbing incidents in the last year, including one daytime shooting in August in the city's east end where someone was used a human shield. In another incident, a man was shot after letting a six-year-old play with his gun.

"We're concerned. That is no secret. These are scary numbers," Bereziuk said. 

...

York and Toronto are seeing similar increases.

In Toronto, there have been 126 more shootings so far this year compared to the same period last year, according to the police data portal. With a total of 395 incidents since January, it also marks the most shootings the city has seen in four years. 

York is also seeing a four-year high, according to numbers provided by its police force, with 63 shootings as of the end of October this year.

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This increase in violent crime appears to be happening all over Canada.

The fact that it comes shortly after heavy restrictions on handguns is interesting as well.

See, the correlation isn't necessarily indicative of causation, but we need to remember that the restrictions were put in place specifically to stop this kind of thing because, as the argument went, access to guns drove shootings.

Now, again, correlation doesn't equal causation, but causation should create correlation. If access to guns was the issue, then reducing the access to guns should cause a decrease in shootings. It hasn't.

The fact is that the criminals up that way aren't bothered by the new restrictions. They're not bothered by any of it in the least, in part because they're not following the laws already. They're just doing what they were going to do all along.

Where there's an issue are the people who would like to defend themselves from these kinds of attacks, but can't because the Canadian government has eliminated two of the best firearm options for a defensive gun--the handgun and the so-called assault weapon.

And for what? An increased rate in shooting?

Sounds like a terrible deal to me.

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