When engaging with people you know who may be either uninformed or worse, misinformed, about firearms on social media, try to cover actual statistics such as the graph posted earlier in this thread (I have the desktop version of the same graph posted below). Write calmly and cover the facts such as how Canadian firearm owners are already highly vetted with in-depth background checks, require multiple character references and are statistically vastly less likely to commit a violent crime than are Canadians who are not licensed to own firearms. I've pulled data from Statscan in previous discussions to this effect and it often has good effect when presented, people are thrown off by data that isn't from a cheap meme. I recall a few times where I stopped Anti's in their tracks, or at the very least shut them up by posting actual facts, one was some stranger commenting on a Facebook entry of a real life friend from AO, this anti-gunner decided to quote firearm 'facts' from the USA about spousal firearm homicides being astronomically high. I pulled up the FBI's uniform crime report, posted the
actual facts and verbally eviscerated him for repeating misinformation and passing it off as fact when he was clearly lying.
Note things such as how the very recent meeting of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police announced that no new firearms laws were necessary according to them, they are fine with what is currently on the books. They know that the criminals will not suddenly be stopped by an additional 'barrier' when they already currently ignore all of the other ones.
It has been made abundantly clear that Liberals and their supporters who do not know anything about firearms or current Canadian laws surrounding them are ill-equipped to make decisions on the subject due to their clear lack of knowledge about firearms or the applicable laws. Its akin to having Health Canada run by anti-vaxxers, witch doctors and shamans. The Liberals previous attempts with the gun registry going vastly over budget into multiple billions of dollars cost taxpayers immensely and had a negligible effect on crime, had that money been spent elsewhere it could have had much greater benefit, for the most part is was the equivalent of setting the money on fire.
The crime we read about & see is primarily gang-related and the guns used by those criminals were not obtained legally. If banned they will simply continue obtaining them illegally be they pistols or rifles (the gov't statistics show that they prefer pistols about 3 to 1 over rifles). Under a ban there would be no difference in terms of the existing crime rate; just as those same criminals import illegal drugs such as meth, cocaine, fentanyl and heroin, etc they would still be acquiring firearms as they already do and always have.
As we're bombarded with media coverage of shootings in the USA, note how much less frequently we have such problems here, and in those infrequent instances how rare it is for those shooters to have acquired a firearm legally in the first place.
Note also that this program is proposed to be run by the same Liberals who are failing at keeping the illegal firearms from crossing our border in the first place. They're failing at that and they are re-directing their efforts at the low-hanging fruit of those who are already law-abiding, those who are not a problem in the first place. The same group who is letting deadly fentanyl and carfentanyl flood through our borders wants to be in charge of banning certain firearms; I think they've proven themselves incompetent as it is, they don't need more tasks to underperform at.
If there is an epidemic they should be focusing on it is this, no firearms. Here is the official Canadian gov't data on opioid-related deaths and you'll notice that 4460 deaths in 2018 is quite a bit more than the 249 homicides by firearms in the same year. Perhaps they should be focusing more energy on that??
https://health-infobase.canada.ca/da...mortality.html
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1...pid=3510007201
As an additional note, take a moment and think about those opioid related deaths and consider the other things surrounding that issue, there is the crime rate driven by the drug users, the police resources they tie up and perhaps the highest burden they put on the taxpayers: the cost of their repeat and perpetual drain on the health care system. These addicts are tying up emergency wards nationwide, I was in emergency recently for a minor poke with a drill and addicts comprised 30-40% of the patients present.
If the Liberals truly want to save the most lives, they'd be focusing on that, but instead they're using firearms and peoples unfamiliarity with them as a scare tactic just to get votes.
4460 opioid deaths versus 249 firearms deaths in the same year. The math is simple, the government should focus on improving the big number, not miniscule/ frankly immeasurable changes to the small number.