Gun Control

This morning, as I was reading the news while eating breakfast, I came across a startling fact - or at least it was startling to me. According to the article, firearms are used in 80% of all suicides in Canada. I knew the percentage was high, but I did not realize that a firearm was used in eight out of every ten successful suicides. That seemed to me to be an absurdly high percentage. So I checked. I was reasonably sure that either I had read the number wrong or that the author had misquoted/misused a statistic. I checked - and all of the articles that I read including those from government sources, professional journals and the public press all say the same thing. What is even more alarming is that this is old news from three years ago. Why is it even being debated?

Every time someone, whether it be a politician or someone at the local Tim Horton's argues that laws will not keep guns out of the hands of criminals and therefore Canada does not need gun control misses the point. Because guns are available - ordinary citizens - our relatives, our neighbours, our fellow workers who cannot see a way out of their situation may, if they have access to a firearm, use it to kill themselves. There is clear proof that when access to firearms is restricted, people are less likely to do so (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8332684).

Restricting access to firearms will not prevent criminals from bringing guns across a border, it will not stop people from shooting at each other to prove their manliness nor will it reduce the amount of other gun-related criminal acts - but it may make it more difficult for desperate people to commit suicide -especially on impulse.  Should we not take some preventative action to make it harder for someone to hurt themselves?

We "make" people wear seatbelts because it may save their lives. Most of us comply with this law in spite of the fact that we have never been in an accident where seat belts have been needed. Can we not do the same for gun control?

To those who argue that it is their right to have a gun (which is not true in Canada) and that the government needs to stop interfering in their lives, need to stop being so self-centred and think about how to make the world a little bit safer for everyone.