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Handguns Kill
The Los Angeles Times has a story about a guy named Bruce Pardo. Pardo had an interesting Christmas Eve. He dressed up as Santa, rang the door bell at his ex-wife's home and shot nine people and himself with five 9-millimeter handguns. The first person he shot was a nine-year-old girl who was running to greet Santa. He shot her in the face.
Pardo had planned well, according to the article. He had five 9-millimeter handguns and had taped $17,000 in cashed plastic-wrapped to his body. He also had an air pump filled with octane fuel. He also had an airline ticket in his shoe. He spent months amassing a small arsenal. The thing about this guy was that he was charming and likable to the outside world, but a terror to his family.
This guy went to the same store over a period of five months and bought five handguns worth a $1000 dollars each. He had to wait 30 days after each purchase according to California law.
Now I am from Texas, and as such was raised around guns. I can handle all types of guns really well. I am not against people having guns, but I am amazed at the fascination with handguns. Handguns are meant for one thing and that is killing or harming humans.
Since this is true, I despise the National Rifle Associations desire to have them. I, recently, did a comparison of gun deaths in Canada and the United States. I chose Canada because Canadians have guns but not nearly as many deaths. Canadians hunt, target shoot, and go shooting on ranges also, but they do it with rifles and shot guns. It almost takes an act of Congress for a Canadian to get a handgun. Why, because handguns are used to kill people. Hence, here is thenumerical comparison:
- There are an estimated 7.4 million firearms in Canada, about 1.2 million of which are restricted firearms (mostly handguns). In the U.S., there are approximately 222 million firearms; 76 million of the firearms in circulation are handguns.
- For 1987-96, on average, 65% of homicides in the U.S. involved firearms, compared to 32% for Canada
- For 1987-96, the average firearm homicide rate was 5.7 per 100,000 in the U.S., compared to 0.7 per 100,000 for Canada.
- For 1989-95, the average handgun homicide rate was 4.8 per 100,000 in the U.S., compared to 0.3 per 100,000 for Canada. Handguns were involved in more than half (52%) of the homicides in the U.S., compared to 14% in Canada.
- For 1989-95, the average non-firearm homicide rate was 3.1 per 100,000 people in the U.S., compared to 1.6 per 100,000 for Canada.
Why do Canadians have less murders by guns than we do? It is because Canada really restricts who gets handguns. Guns kill, and those who hold on to these archaic ideas that you need a gun to protect yourself are delusional. Stop making excuses for failed policies. Owning a gun is not a right, it is a privilege and we need to start looking at it as such.
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