A Tale of Two Cultures: Guns

Hi LINC 7 Students,

Today, we were talking about the RCMP and how it was pivotal in the kind of culture that developed in Canada ("obey the law") compared to the kind of culture that developed in the United States ("the Wild West").

The effects of these two very different cultures can be seen in today's news headlines and the growing problems with firearms and shootings in American society.

Here's the link to a revealing article by an American writer. It was written after the 2014 attack in Ottawa by a gunman, which left a Canadian soldier and his killer dead (actually shot to death inside the Houses of Parliament in Ottawa).

From this article, here are some interesting statistics for comparison:

Annual homicides by gun:

• Canada had 173 homicides by gun, according to a 2012 report.
• The U.S. had 9,146 that year.

Total number of civilian guns:

• Canada has 9,950,000.
• The U.S. has more than 27 times as many: 270,000,000.

Guns per person:

• Canada reports 30.8 firearms per 100 people. The country ranks 13 worldwide for firearms per capita, according to a report published by The Washington Post in September.
• The U.S. has 88.8. It ranks No. 1.

Waiting period to purchase a gun:

• Canada requires a 60-day waiting period.
• There is no federally mandated waiting period in the U.S. Residents can receive a gun after a background check.

Largest mass shootings:

• Canada’s largest mass shooting was in 1989, when 25-year-old Marc Lepine killed 14 people at Montreal's École Polytechnique.
• The U.S. has had 160 mass shooting incidents between 2000 and 2013, CNN reports from a study released by the FBI. The largest U.S. shooting was at Virginia Tech in 2007, when 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people. In 2012, twenty children and seven adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

License and registration requirements:

• To own a gun in Canada, residents must take a safety course and pass both a written and a practical exam. The license expires in five years. Residents have to register restricted firearms, such as handguns and automatic weapons, with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police's Canadian Firearms Program.
• In the U.S., license and registration laws vary from states to state, often with no such requirements. There is no mandatory course or exam.

Which country do you want to live in?