[chris]

Even without documentation, I'd think that skippy is correct; handgun crime in the cities is what makes the news - Jimmy shooting Stevie in northern Ontario, or anywhere outside of a major urban centre doesn't make headlines in the city... and therefore doesn't make the headlines nationally.

[skippy the wonder dog]

The majority of firearms homicides in Canada are committed with long guns.

Can you find some documentation for this Skip...I'm not calling you a liar or anything but I've never heard of gangs killing with hunting rifles.

I remember the deaths of those RCMP officers on the drug farm in the Prairies a few years ago were committed with hunting rifles but those types of murders are far less prevalent than your typical metropolitan gang-style violence.

I think we can both agree that handguns pose the more serious threat to society as a whole in reference to gun violence.

You callin' me a liar? Them's fightin' words.

That's an oft-quoted statistic, favoured by those arguing in favour of a long run registry. However, I just checked it, and it's not true.

It was true up until 1993 -- in every year, from 1974 to 1991, handgun murders were less common than long gun murders. But in every year since 1991, handgun murders have been more numerous than long gun murders. This reversal can probably be attributed to the storage regulations introduced in Kim Campbell's gun control bill, following the Montreal massacre, which were intended to reduce the number of crimes of passion committed with long guns owned for hunting, etc.

However, since then, long gun murders still form an appreciable proportion of the total firearms murders (almost one third). This is because lots of murders are committed by ordinary folks who don't have access to handguns, rather than by gangsters or hardened criminals.

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publicati...ew/108.pdf

Incidentally, according to StatsCan, the proportion of firearms murders committed with registered firearms since 1997 is very small -- less than 10 percent. That includes murders committed with registered weapons that were stolen.

Since over 50 percent of firearms murders in that time were committed with handguns, and the law has required since the 1970s that all handguns be registered, this suggests that a very large proportion of these killings involve weapons that were never registered, i.e. not either legitimately owned or stolen from legitimate owners.

http://www.garrybreitkreuz.com/publicati...ew/106.pdf

I do agree with you that handguns pose a greater public menace, as these are the weapons used by "hardened criminals." I just disagree with the notion that a handgun ban will do much good. Stronger border controls and tighter controls on handguns in the US certainly would.

(Final disclaimer: the fact that I linked to StatsCan documents on Garry Brightklutz's site should not be taken to indicate that I agree with anything he says about gun control.)