Canada's low crime rate is a result of a basic ideological difference between Canada and the USA.
What we do differently in Canada that really reduces crime and murder is rather simple. We take much better care of our poor. It's literally impossible to starve to death in Canada because charities and government programs ensure that food is always available to those who need it. Homeless people here are, for the most part, homeless because they want to be or because they are drug addicts who won't seek help. Those that do seek help find it available through our publicly-funded healthcare system.
Committing murder, especially mass-murder is a final-straw act of despair that comes from thinking that there's nothing to live for, not because there's a lot of guns around. In the USA, poor people feel truly hopeless and are marginalised so they really feel that nobody cares. They're not exactly wrong because the US government really DOESN'T care about the poor and the way things are today, people that do care about the poor and would like to help out are kept so busy that they don't have time for their kids, let alone acts of altruism.
People with nothing to lose and no way out of a bad situation are the most dangerous people on the planet. The USA produces them in droves. People in the US often grow up with a sense that money is more valuable than human life. So if someone grows up poor, is taught that human life is of little value and sees no way to make their own situation better without resorting to crime, they will quite happily turn to crime and feel justified for doing so. The lack of emphasis on the value of human life compared to the value of a dollar means that people become sociopathic and will kill without mercy or regret. Add the number of guns "in the wild" in the USA and that's a recipe for disaster. Whether Americans like it or not, the crime and murder in the USA will not go down as long as they demonise any government initiative that could be deemed "socialistic".
Keep the guns if you want, but FFS, fix the socio-economc crisis that is the cause of all these symptoms like crime and murder!
This amazing youtube video comment got a mere 4 likes. These are only the last few paragraphs. The rest of the comment has some good insights on gun control. I posted the entire thing below. Hopefully I’m not violating any rules by posting it in its entirety, since it’s just a youtube comment.
The video itself is also remarkable. It’s by Beau of the Fifth Column. This particular video I don’t 100% agree with, but others are spot-on.
Here’s a great Beau video:
Here’s the Canadian’s full comment.
Beau, it really is a shame that not all Americans think as you do on this topic. Up here in Canada, we realise that guns don't cause murder but they do sure make it easier. What we've done is a bit different than talking points from both sides of the American argument. I swear, sometimes I wish that you Yanks would pay more attention to us 'Nucks because you might actually see things you like. This is what Canada has done:
For example, repeating bolt-action .38 centrefire rifles are fully legal because they are considered to be hunting weapons. Similarly, .22-calibre repeating bolt-action rimfire rifles are so popular in Canada that we used to make our own. It was a rather famous gun maker called Lakefield (before it became swallowed up by some "Savage" Yankee gunmaker). I can't think of a reason why anyone in urban to rural areas in southern Canada would need anything more than a .38 bolt-action. They're just as much fun to shoot at targets with as a .50-calibre rifle and they're better at longer ranges than .22-calibre. Having said that, unless you're a real hunter, using a .22-calibre bolt-action rifle for targets and bottles is just as much fun to do as with a .38 and it costs WAY less for the gun itself and ammo.
Semi-auto rifles are available but a lot of hunters are perfectly fine with more conventional bolt-action .38 centrefire designs. Semi-auto rifles aren't a necessary hunting weapon because being a hunter is essentially being a sniper. One shot is all you need to take down a deer or moose if you aim right and if you don't, very few people hunt alone so you'd be looking at three to five bullets hitting the mark.
I do think that a semi-auto rifle is a necessity in Canada's north because there ARE polar bears and they ACTIVELY HUNT HUMANS. We smell like dinner to them, unlike brown bears (grizzlies) and black bears that know how crazy dangerous humans are and fear us. I would want a semi-automatic rifle like an SKS-45 or AR-15. If I'm out hiking in the Canadian North and I see a polar bear, I'm not going to scare it off, I'm going to kill it because it will stalk me for days if I don't and no human can out-run any bear. Nope, I'm going to empty my magazine into that fucker and put a few more into it to be sure that it's dead.
Personally, I'd probably lean towards the SKS because, at least here in Canada, they're not banned and are quite cheap on the surplus market. And if you want to talk about cheap ammo, well shit, you can get the 7.62x39mm rounds for a song because there are a lot of former Warsaw Pact countries that have WAY more of these bullets than they'll ever need and they know it. Even North Korea has sold off millions of rounds for cheap. The cheapest rounds are the acid rounds but they're a pain to use because you have to constantly be cleaning the barrel after using them. They're great if you're not lazy. ;)
The other key ingredient to Canada's low gun-death rate is the strict control of pistols and revolvers. These are NOT considered hunting weapons, they are considered combat weapons. This makes sense because nobody hunts with a 9MM Glock or Colt .45, or at least, nobody that I've ever seen or heard about. As a result, handguns are heavily restricted to the degree that you have to not only complete a gvoernment gun operation and safety course, you must also be able to PROVE that you have a serious need for this gun (dangerous occupation, or show that your life is in serious jeopardy). When one's life is in jeopardy, it is far more common to be assigned police protection than a handgun licence (and probably more effective too).
Occupations that warrant a handgun licence include private investigator, bounty hunter and being a guard of a high-value item or person (VIP, armoured car, bank holding facility, gemstone warehouse, museum, etc.). Handgun licences are also granted to gun clubs for use exclusively on their property for indoor range shooting. These guns cannot ever leave the premises unless the company itself is moving. Police officers and military personnel also have an easier time getting them (for obvious reasons).
So the key to reducing the number of guns is to reduce the number of DANGEROUS guns and increase the number of less-dangerous firearms. Nobody is going to go on a killing spree with a bolt-action .38 repeater with a 5-round magazine, or at least if they do, the number of deaths will be far fewer. In Canada, we freely allow guns that a reasonable person would want to use as a hunting tool or target shooting. People who want to own guns are allowed to do so up to a reasonable degree. Note that keyword "reasonable" because it's used a lot in Canadian Law.
The best way to limit the availablilty of more dangerous firearms is to offer much less dangerous firearm for much less money and far fewer headaches that will be just as effective for all legal gun uses in Canada. If you want to go hunting in Canada and have a hunting licence, a .22 or .38-calibre bolt-action repeater rifle with a five-shot magazine is a piece of cake to get. If you want a semi-auto rifle, you can get that too but it costs more and magazines are still limited to 5 rounds. Sure, anybody can make bigger magazines but very few, if any, Canadian hunters think that a 5-shot magazine is insufficient. This reduces the guns available for use in crime in Canada but it isn't why Canada has such a low crime and murder rate compared to the USA. Canada's low crime rate is a result of a basic ideological difference between Canada and the USA.
What we do differently in Canada that really reduces crime and murder is rather simple. We take much better care of our poor. It's literally impossible to starve to death in Canada because charities and government programs ensure that food is always available to those who need it. Homeless people here are, for the most part, homeless because they want to be or because they are drug addicts who won't seek help. Those that do seek help find it available through our publicly-funded healthcare system.
Committing murder, especially mass-murder is a final-straw act of despair that comes from thinking that there's nothing to live for, not because there's a lot of guns around. In the USA, poor people feel truly hopeless and are marginalised so they really feel that nobody cares. They're not exactly wrong because the US government really DOESN'T care about the poor and the way things are today, people that do care about the poor and would like to help out are kept so busy that they don't have time for their kids, let alone acts of altruism.
People with nothing to lose and no way out of a bad situation are the most dangerous people on the planet. The USA produces them in droves. People in the US often grow up with a sense that money is more valuable than human life. So if someone grows up poor, is taught that human life is of little value and sees no way to make their own situation better without resorting to crime, they will quite happily turn to crime and feel justified for doing so. The lack of emphasis on the value of human life compared to the value of a dollar means that people become sociopathic and will kill without mercy or regret. Add the number of guns "in the wild" in the USA and that's a recipe for disaster. Whether Americans like it or not, the crime and murder in the USA will not go down as long as they demonise any governemnt initiative that could be deemed "socialistic".
Keep the guns if you want, but FFS, fix the socio-economc crisis that is the cause of all these symptoms like crime and murder!