A Presentation to Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, The Senate of Canada

Abstract

This presentation addresses four points:

(1) Responsible gun owners are less likely to murder than other Canadians; (2) The police have not demonstrated the value of long-gun registry; (3) The long-gun registry has not been effective in reducing homicide rates; and (4) The data in the long-gun registry are of poor quality and should be destroyed.

Bill C-19 deserves support because the evidence demonstrates that scrapping the long-gun registry is a modest step towards improving public safety.

Keywords: gun control, gun registration, gun owners, effectiveness of gun laws, Canada

JEL Classification: criminology, sociology, Canada, law, politics, police, social policy