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Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

It's worth noting that Canada is one of the highest gun ownership societies on earth. They're 11th in the world in number of guns per capita. They have nearly as high of a gun ownership rate, in terms of the percentage of the population that owns at least a single gun, as the US.

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And their rate of actual shootings and deaths by firearm is much smaller, which is the actual relevant number

Only because they don't have huge ghettos with gang problems. It's basically a demographics issue.

Oh I hear Jane/Finch and Scarborough are veritable paradises these days

Jane and Finch is a paradise compared to most US slums.

Or because Canadians try to use their guns for hunting animals.

That may be true statistically, but is that survey based on a nation-wide basis? I am asking because the culture between provinces and regions can vary extremely widely. I have lived in Canada for 17 yeara and no one I know has a firearm. Most of my friends and their families are the same. Which is to say that I've lived near Toronto and Southern Ontario, but where a sizable portion of the Canadian urban population lives. Of course there are many Canadians living in rural areas where owning firearms makes more sense, but culturally speaking, our gun ownership mindset is still generally far more restrictive. You'd be hard pressed to find a lot of gun owners in major cities and suburbs.

.. err, no - US has 88 guns per 100 people, and Canada has 30. See the list here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_guns_per_capita_by...

Charlton Heston said it best on bowling for columbine.

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