Gun Violence in Canada

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“Cassie Culpepper, 11, was in the back of a pickup truck with her brother and two other family members. Her brother was playing with the pistol his father lent him to scare coyotes with. Believing he had removed all the bullets, he pointed the pistol at his sister and squeezed the trigger. It fired and killed her on impact. (NY Times)” This is a true story that happened in the US because they allow personal firearms to everyday citizens. This could happen in Canada if we allow registration of personal guns to be abolished. Canada has a reputation as a safe and peaceful country. To keep this reputation and to keep Canadian citizens safe, Canada needs to maintain its strict gun control. Canada can stay a safer country without personal firearms because it causes homicides, suicides and accidental murders.

Homicide is one of the worst crimes a person can commit. If you are found guilty by the court of law you can be sentenced to 10 years in prison, proving that it is an unjustifiable crime (justice.gc.ca). Homicide by definition is the killing of one human by another even without intent (dictionary.reference) and can be punishable as murder or manslaughter (World Book H 304). Personal firearms, mostly handguns, make the process of homicide easier and less scarring because instead of a gruesome stabbing; it is just a pull of a trigger. If Canadian citizens were allowed the easy access to personal firearms like US citizens, homicide rates would be much higher than what is it today. The United States of America in 2011 had an annual homicide total of 15,953. 75% of these homicides were done by a personal firearm. These numbers compared to Canada’s annual homicide total of 529, which only 173 involved personal firearms (32%) (gun policy)...

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http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/13/opinion/paugh-guns-suicide-irpt/

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