Canada Letter: Debating the Future of Handguns

The Times’s recent Canada-related coverage with back stories and analysis from our reporters along with opinions from our readers. View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Saturday, October 13, 2018 [NYTimes.com/Canada »]( [Debating the Future of Handguns]( By IAN AUSTEN We struck a nerve when we asked you a couple of weeks ago for your thoughts about a possible ban on handguns and assault weapons in Canada after the federal government said that it will [seek]( views of Canadians]( that question. You responded with an unusually large number of emails. Here are some of the highlights. They have been edited for length and clarity: [Anti-gun posters at the scene of the mass shooting on Danforth Avenue in Toronto in July.] Anti-gun posters at the scene of the mass shooting on Danforth Avenue in Toronto in July. Chris Helgren/Reuters I see absolutely no reason for the personal possession of handguns and most certainly not for assault weapons. If that interferes with a personal hobby, then too bad. —Dr. M. Clement Hall I am a pathologist who has been performing forensic autopsies since 1983. In 1990, I spent a week at the Centre for Forensic Sciences in Toronto. One afternoon, the director of ballistics showed me a room covered with confiscated guns used in crimes. He was quite clear that at that time the vast majority of handguns used in crimes were manufactured in the United States and imported illegally. He showed me a silver colored six-shot revolver and stated that it sold for about $50 in Detroit and $600 on the street in Toronto. If this situation has changed there should be no problem amassing the data to prove it. So what is the solution? First, we need data. In the absence of proof that legal firearms are being diverted to the criminal market, restricting their sale any further would seem pointless. Effective border controls might help if most guns are coming from the U.S. But we must consider that a motivated killer often finds other ways to do horrific damage to other people. —Dr. Rocke Robertson, Cranbrook, British Columbia [Want the Canada Letter in your inbox every week? [Subscribe here.]( Handguns have absolutely no place in our society. Although we have laws already on the books, we need more — and more enforcement. Having a gun in the city is completely unnecessary unless you are a policeman. Why would anyone else have a gun: target practice? That is a pretty lame explanation for needing to own a killing tool! When I worked as a librarian in the United States, I couldn’t believe a sign posted in the lobby of my new library. Number One on a list of top ten rules was: “no guns in the library.” I had culture shock. —Catherine Morrisey, London, Ontario [The scene of the Danforth mass shooting in Toronto in July.] The scene of the Danforth mass shooting in Toronto in July. Chris Helgren/Reuters I like shooting, including pistols. But I would be happy if handguns did not exist, even for the police and military. How many innocent civilians would be alive if the police had to go back to their cruisers to get their shotgun instead of pulling out their high-powered, semiautomatic pistols? I own an assault rifle: an 8 millimeter German Mauser bolt action from World War I. Any gun can be called an assault rifle. We really need to keep guns and vehicles away from people with mental health problems. That means spending more money detecting and helping those with mental illnesses. Whenever a disaster occurs, the media and others start the crazy talk about guns. They forget to include the most important part of the tragedy: the person who killed. —Tom Hickie, Fredericton, New Brunswick As someone who has jumped through hoops to get my restricted weapons license and who then laid down prohibitive sums to purchase handguns, I am deeply opposed to any additional restrictions on their ownership in Canada. I struggle to think of recent instances where lawfully owned handguns were used for street crime. Any talk of criminalizing all possession of handguns seems to me an attempt to mask the inability of police forces in larger centers, notably Toronto, to get the gang violence problem under control. —Riley Pyette, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan [Canada’s registry of shotguns and rifles, since repealed, prompted protests in 1998.] Canada’s registry of shotguns and rifles, since repealed, prompted protests in 1998. Jim Young/Reuters I fear the constant cultural and political bleed from U.S. media and the internet is shifting Canadian Conservative politicians rightward and into the grip of the of gun rights advocates in Canada. What about the rest of us? The Liberal government in Ottawa is right to pursue bans on handguns and assault weapons. Shame on us if we fail to make this critical policy shift. Let’s be clear, we are not talking about hunters and rifles. We are not talking about sports shooting. Assault weapons and handguns, bullets and people using them — including rogue police officers — really do kill. —Rev. Douglas A. Greenaway [Shotguns, which the government is not moving to ban, on sale in Montreal.] Shotguns, which the government is not moving to ban, on sale in Montreal. Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press When I learned to hunt in Alberta, everyone started the same way: a [single-shot 12 gauge Cooey](. You had one chance at the bird. You learned safety, caution and how to manage a dangerous weapon. If you decided that hunting was something you wanted to do, you graduated to a Model 12 Winchester modified 3-shot. But no hunter ever considered a sidearm or, heaven forbid, an assault rifle. Every true hunter I ever met supports registry regulation and responsibility. —David Guren I am a physician. Banning handguns when there are nearly one million known handguns in Canada would promote a backlash and thus be counterproductive. But I am strongly in favor of continuing and strengthening our gun regulations. In the U.S., the rate of gun deaths (suicides plus accidents plus murders) approaches the level of traffic accidents as a public health problem. Yet while efforts to improve traffic-safety are applauded, any efforts to reduce the gun carnage are reviled as rights infringements. Let us not import this toxic attitude into Canada. —Dr. Susan B. Graham, Norfolk County, Ontario Through Their Eyes Not long after breaking the Harvey Weinstein story and setting off a global #MeToo firestorm, The Times launched the Gender Initiative, a group dedicated to covering women and gender. This week, it released an exciting and innovative, visually driven project. I’ll let Francesca Donner, director of the Gender Initiative, explain: The New York Times For International Day of the Girl, we launched [This Is 18]( a project examining what it’s like to be 18, through the eyes of girls. We enlisted 22 young women photographers to document the lives of 21 girls across 12 time zones, six continents, and 15 languages. From Mexico to Mississippi, Ramallah to Russia, Nairobi to New Delhi, we chronicled the lives of 18-year-olds. They skateboard with friends, go to volleyball practice, play music, and dance. Many of them plan to attend college. Others work full-time. They worry about things like climate change, violence against women, and how much time their generation spends on social media. In Montreal, Lori’anne works and attends school. She’s a fan of McMuffins for breakfast. :) In Bangladesh, Shama is recently married. She hopes to become a teacher. In the U.S., Madison is a mother who is taking a break from school to care for her young son. “Eighteen is that little gray spot between adulthood and childhood. You’re still a little kid, but the world is like ‘you’re a grown up,’ and you somehow have to merge with the rest of the world,” observed Hélène, a fine art and animation student in California. Please take a look at our project. Then share a photo of yourself at 18 with the hashtag #ThisIs18 on your favorite social platform. (Bad outfits and bad hair welcome!) What advice would you give to the girl in the photo? For more on the world and the women shaping it, follow us on Instagram at [@nytgender]( or sign up for our newsletter, the [Gender Letter](. And after you take in This Is 18, you should also [take a look at this article]( by Sandra Stevenson, a photo editor at The Times, about working with the more than two dozen young photographers who participated in This is 18. Trans Canada [This Canadian Hockey Star Doubles as a Law Enforcer]( Meghan Agosta has a career as an officer with the Vancouver police force. But the star forward on the Canadian national hockey team is determined to make a fifth Olympic appearance in 2022. Op-Docs [Holding On to the Farm]( Set aside seven minutes to watch the moving and melancholy story of documentary filmmaker Lewis Bennett’s family as told through their now-abandoned family farm south of Saskatoon. The Shortlist [Three Canadian Novels Test the Bonds — and Boundaries — of Family]( The New York Times Book Review has read through three new novels about Canadian families by Joanne Proulx, Emma Hooper and Melanie Hobson. The three stories are set in a thinly disguised Ottawa, a fictional Newfoundland village and a Georgian mansion on the shore of Lake Ontario. [Inside the C.E.O.’s Social Media Meltdown at Deciem]( Brandon Truaxe, founder of the popular Toronto-based cosmetics company Deciem, has a highly unusual approach to management and investor relations. Around The Times [I’m Just a Middle-Aged House Dad Addicted to Pot]( On Wednesday, recreational marijuana becomes legal in Canada. Writer Neal Pollack believes that should also be the case in the United States. But he has a harrowing tale of how marijuana addiction almost ruined his life. HOW ARE WE DOING? A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has family ties throughout Western Canada. He has reported about Canada for The New York Times for over 15 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten. We’re eager to have your thoughts about this newsletter and events in Canada in general. Please send them to [nytcanada@nytimes.com](mailto:nytcanada@nytimes.com? subject=Canada%20Letter%20Newsletter%20Feedback). LIKE THIS EMAIL? Forward it to your friends, and let them know they can sign up [here](. ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW NYTIMES [Facebook] [FACEBOOK]( [Twitter] [@nytimes]( Get more [NYTimes.com newsletters »]( | Get unlimited access to NYTimes.com and our NYTimes apps. [Subscribe »]( ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this message because you signed up for NYTimes.com's Canada Letter newsletter. 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