There Is a War Going On and It's Not in Afghanistan - It Is In Ontario's North

There Is a War Going On and It's Not in Afghanistan - It Is In Ontario's North
from SooNews Wire, August 31, 2010. (Link found via B.B. and R.K.)

In 2008, in Ontario the RCMP's Annual Report on the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (DVDRC) stated there were 165 women and children were killed in domestic violence. The figure increases to 230 when you add male victims of domestic violence - the majority of which were suicides by the domestic violence perpetrator.

This war conducted behind closed doors is shocking. Women are being murdered in Canada at an alarming rate. In the seven-year period from 2000 to 2006, 101 Canadian soldiers and police officers were killed here at home and in Afghanistan. At the same time, more than 500 women in Canada were shot, stabbed, strangled or beaten to death by the intimate males in their lives. (Figures from The War on Women: Elly Amour, Jane Hurshman and Criminal Violence in Canadian Homes, by Brian Vall'e. )

What has this got to do with the Long-Gun Registry? Everything. Like in a "real" war, guns are used in domestic violence as a primary weapon. In Canada's domestic violence war, shooting was the second main cause of death of victims. (The main cause was stabbing.) But that is where the comparison ends. In a real "war" deaths are inevitable. In Canada's domestic violence "war", deaths are prevented and preventable each and every day.

The tool used to prevent these deaths is the long-gun registry. Police use this tool more than 13,000 times a day before, during and after crime. This tool, the long-gun registry is crucial. Statistics from the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee found firearms to be present in 47% of domestic homicides in 2007. A woman is 12 times more likely to be murdered if a gun is involved in domestic violence. If police know a registered gun is on the premises - whether in a domestic violence dispute or suicide attempt - they can act accordingly. They can save lives and prevent gunshot injuries - that of potential victims and their own.

There is overwhelming evidence that the long-gun registry works. For four million dollars - a mere doubling of the amount spent on Toronto's G20 "fake lake' - it is a terrific bargain. In 1991, more than 1400 Canadians a year were killed with gun. Now it is fewer than 800. Since 1991, the rate of murder by rifle or shotgun has dropped by more than 78%. Suicide rates, particularly among young men have declined.

Most people from Northern Ontario, if asked whether they would prevent soldiers dying in Afghanistan would answer in the affirmative. If they were then told preventing these deaths would involve minimal effort, far less time than say filling out a tax form, the response would be a resounding yes. Registering a gun is simple. It is a onetime procedure. It costs nothing. It takes minutes to fill out online.

The question begs why isn't this same standard applied to preventing deaths in our own homes? Domestic violence victims are women, men, children and babies in Northern Ontario. One day they might be your friend or relative. Preventing their deaths also requires an effort on par with buying an airline ticket on-line. What makes the deaths of (mostly) women and children less important than saving the lives of Canadian troops or police? Let your MP know that you put public safety over ideology. Say yes, to filling out an online form that could save lives. Say no to the unnecessary destruction of seven million gun registry records. Say a resounding yes to saving lives. Say yes to the gun registry.