NCJ Number
180428
Date Published
September 1998
Length
115 pages
Annotation
This literature review focuses on the role that firearms have in injuries, unintentional deaths, suicides, and violent crimes, especially in Canada; the report also examines role of firearm regulation in reducing such incidents and addresses other ways to promote the responsible use of guns.
Abstract
Survey research indicates that Canada's household rate of gun ownership is about 26 percent. Canada's rate is in the middle range of the countries studied. Hunting is the main reason for owning a gun in Canada. A total of 1,125 firearms deaths occurred in Canada in 1995. Eighty percent were suicides, 12.4 percent were homicides, and 4.3 percent were accidents. The rate of fatal firearm injuries has been decreasingly steadily since 1978. Homicide and firearms rates have declined in Canada since 1975; strategies to prevent homicides in the home differ from those to prevent homicides in the streets. A total of 21.3 percent of the 31,242 robberies reported in Canada in 1996 involved a gun. Forty-nine people died of firearms accidents in 1995; fatal injuries have been declining steadily in Canada and most other industrialized countries over the last few decades. The frequency of nonfatal accidents may be 10-13 times the number of fatal accidents. Most research on gun ownership for crime prevention has taken place in the United States and does not support any firm conclusions about the extent to which gun ownership for self-protection offsets the adverse effects of gun ownership. Findings on the impacts of Canada's law reforms of 1977 have been somewhat inconclusive and controversial. Research is needed in Canada regarding the types of guns used in crime, their origins, and methods through which they were acquired. Further research is needed on this issue. Approximately 250 references