Dear Editor
‘Talking gun culture with American friends’ by Brian Zinchuk (The Battlefords Regional Optimist, March 8) was a disappointment from an author usually well-grounded in reality. If, as Mr. Zinchuk suggests, Canada has less gun related violence than the United States it is because “… our gun laws are a lot more restrictive, especially for what we categorize as restricted or prohibited weapons; pistols and assault/submachine gun types,” he is woefully ignorant of many basic facts. For one thing, what he and most other media types almost universally refer to as ‘assault style weapons’ are no such thing. They are semi-automatic firearms without the capacity for full auto fire, and they are readily available for purchase right here in Canada, and classed as ‘non-restricted’ firearms.
Not only is Mr. Zinchuk ignorant of such basic facts, his belief that tougher gun laws would make Americans less violent is also at odds with reality. Mexico and Belize, countries with which I have some familiarity, both have stricter gun control laws than most American states and cities, and much stricter even than Canadian gun laws, yet they respectively have intentional homicide rates of 218.49, and 418.02 per 100,000 population. The Americans by comparison, have 42.01 per 100,000! (They are in 99th place) Canada is in 142nd place but there are fifty-one countries, some such as Switzerland with very high gun ownership, which have even lower homicide rates.
Perhaps Mr. Zinchuk should re-examine his views on “bullying” and reflect on how Americans are viewed in that light by most other countries; perhaps such reflection would shed light on why Americans in general appear to be a more violent society than Canadians. The American leadership and vast military establishment routinely uses violence to achieve objectives, and to me it only seems reasonable some of that behaviour would be reflected in its citizenry.
James Wiebe
Sonningdale
