Originally Posted By: 97tbird
It is MAINLY a gun issue. Not a mental health issue. THAT is used as an argument every time, IMO. If the mentally ill didn't have such easy access to guns the possibility of them taking so many innocents with them will go down.
Sure there are other means, but not as easy as this.
Disarming people in this country is not going to happen. CONTROL is what is needed:
-Types of guns CIVILIANS are allowed to own. (based on PROVEN type of need / use - yearly checks if special need still exists)
-NUMBER of guns, say you own 1 gun for 5 yrs and if you're still being a responsible gun owner and everything seems ok still, THEN you get to apply to own ONE MORE gun.
-AMOUNT of ammunition that CIVILIANS can buy at ONE time.
-YEARLY MANDATORY checks of background, mental health, criminal activity etc. If you don't show up, your permit and gun(s) are GONE.
These countries don't have mentally ill people or what?
They have accessible healthcare. The chart conveniently shows countries that generally all have the same type (or similar) of health care system to Canada's.
Also, that list is ridiculous. Our gun laws are nowhere near that insane and our gun homicide rate is massively lower than yours.
What we have:
-Mandatory licensing to own any firearm which includes an extensive background check
-Mandatory additional licencing to own any "restricted" firearm which includes even more exhaustive background checks
-Mandatory storage requirements
-Mandatory even stricter storage requirements for "restricted" firearms
We also have magazine size limits for centre-fire semi-automatic rifles (though this is heavily contested by many people) of 5 rounds. My bolt .308 holds 10 rounds in my AI mag. Rimfire is unlimited, so you can have a Ruger 10-22 with a 150rd barrel mag without issue.
The VAST majority of Canada's gun homicides are committed using hand guns (restricted) which are smuggled in illegally from the USA. This happens primarily in the GTA and is generally gang-bangers offing each other. No amount of additional firearms laws levied on the Canadian public would have ANY impact on this.