The Canadian Prime Minister recently enacted a total handgun “freeze” in his country, our northern neighbor. During this “freeze” handguns can no longer be sold, purchased or traded in Canada. No new handguns can be brought into the country either. The only exceptions are for law enforcement, gunsmiths and competitive shooters.
How does Canada differ from the United States? One main difference is children under the age of 12 who need to hunt to eat can possess firearms as long as they have permission from their elders. Sorry kids, no McDonalds here.
Two years ago Canada banned the sale and use of 1,500 models of firearms they called “assault weapons''. That’s a crazy long list.
With Canadians owning a little over 12 million firearms, that works out to be about 30 firearms per 100 residents with a population of about 36 million people. With almost 4 million square miles of country, I wonder who had to go door to door to collect those prohibited weapons. Watch out for bigfoot!
The United States has ten times the population with over 334 million people (that is more than twice the population of Russia or Mexico). Unlike Canada, the United States has more firearms than people with approximately 115 firearms per 100 people. Based on that data, if firearms were really the problem, there would be no people left! The number of firearms per person is the highest rate of any country in the world. That might be a deterrent to anyone wanting to invade, don’t you think?
Some fun firearm facts:
Less than 10 million firearms are manufactured in the United States every year.
A little less than 40 million background checks were conducted by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) last year
The United States firearm manufacturers only export about 300,000 firearms per year
Approximately 4 people out of 100,000 are killed by firearms each year. Almost 50% of all American homes have at least one firearm.
In 2021 six firearms were sold per 100 people.
It is estimated that 3 million first-time buyers purchased a firearm during January to June of 2021.
One of the primary reasons given by first-time buyers was self-defense.
24% of first-time buyers were women.
Sig Sauer’s model P365 9mm handgun was one of the top 3 firearms sold last year. This firearm is compact and holds up 10, 12 or 15 rounds based on magazine and model.
Taurus G2 and Taurus G3 handguns were on the top ten list. Less expensive than the competition, these firearms hold 12 or 15 rounds, depending on the model. The G2 is compact, the G3 is full size.
Remember knowledge is power, the Right to Bear Arms is in our Constitution, and knowing the truth about things may help ease fear and confusion.