Jonathan Ganz wrote:
In article FL%pf.158996$Gd6.71897@pd7tw3no,
Gary wrote:

Interesting, but they do have the same approximate per capita
ownership, and, a much less violent society per capita.

I question the "per capita gun ownership" claim. I know it says that on
many questionable websites but having lived in both coutries I would
argue. I know no one in right now (in Canada) who owns a handgun and
several folks who own long guns. While in Colorado for 3 years most
Americans I met had a handgun in their home. They also frequently owned
many long guns.

My experience would lend me to believe that the statistic is not correct.


I don't claim to know if the statistics are accurate or not. All I can
do is quote them. However, your experience is ancedotal, which isn't
good enough to cite as typical or supported.

How about this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0115/p07s01-woam.html

or:

"It's true that Canada does have a lot of guns compared to England or
Japan, but Canada's per-capita gun ownership rate is about a third of
the American level."
From:
http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel040403.asp

or

"Canada is more rural and therefore each firearm owning household
(roughly 26%) has a variety of firearms (at least 3) for different uses.
In the US, firearm owning households (about 50%) are more likely to
have only one or two because they own them for self-defence and not
hunting, predator control, etc.

This further indicates that while fewer Canadian households have a
firearm, those that do, have more. This confirms most government
estimates of 15 to 20 million firearms in Canada, while in the US, there
are about 200 million (giving both countries similar per capita rates of
firearm ownership). If the rates of firearm ownership are similar in
countries with drastically different murder rates, then it's probably
not the firearms that are the problem."
From:
http://teapot.usask.ca/cdn-firearms/...html#USACanada

All this to say that it is not really clearly known by either country
how many guns there are but fewer households in Canada have guns. In
Canada they own mostly long guns as a tool where as south of the border
(excluding Alaska) the number of households per capita with guns is
double and they are owned for self defence and include a huge proportion
of handguns.

The right statistic is crimes with the use of a gun. You Merkans win.