Heroin and Cornflakes

December 6, 2009, marks the 20th anniversary of the day when 25 year old Marc Lépine entered a Montreal university with a concealed Sturm Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and opened fire on engineering students.

Separating  men from the women, he expelled the men at gunpoint, lined up the remaining women students against the wall, and began to fire. Six women died; the others were injured, but survived.

Students were delivering end-of-semester oral presentations. ‘At first, nobody did anything,’ recalled Eric Forget, 21. Then, the gunman opened fire, sending two professors and 26 students scrambling for cover beneath their desks. ‘We were trapped like rats,’ said Forget. ‘He was shooting all over the place.’

Other witnesses said that Lépine leaped onto several desks and shot at women cowering beneath them.

Four more women were killed. Then, roughly 20 minutes after embarking on his rampage, Lépine took his own life. By the time he blew off the back of his own head, fourteen women lay dead, and thirteen other students were injured (nine women, four men).

Gunman Marc Lépine

It was later found that Lépine studied for admission to the École Polytechnique, but was not accepted — a decision he apparently blamed on “affirmative action” policies promoted by feminists and their sympathizers.

Following the aftermath of the massacre, student groups petitioned the government for more rigid gun control laws.

In Canada in 1991, Bill C-17 was passed that tightened up restrictions and established controls on any firearms that had a military or paramilitary appearance.

In 1995, Bill C-68 introduced new, stricter gun control legislation.  This legislation provided harsher penalties for crimes involving firearms use, licenses to possess and acquire firearms, and registration of all firearms, including shotguns and rifles.

So why the concern now?

In November this year, Bill C-391 passed a second reading in the House of Commons by a vote of 164 to 137.

If passed through the entire parliamentary process by the House and Senate, the Bill would abolish the requirement to register non-restricted long guns.

Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan  says, “It’s clear that the firearms registry is a giant waste of money and is totally useless in preventing crime.”

While the proposed legislation is a Private Members Bill, it has the support of the Conservative Government. The Bill has now been referred to a House of Commons Committee for further action.

So, 20 years on from the tragedy, why the sudden U turn?

Are people safer without restrictions on gun registration?

Are gun laws a waste of time in the prevention of crime and the actions of suicidal maniacs?

Lets see if we can find any answers.

There are at least 875 million firearms in the world today of which 75% are owned by civilians (over a third by civilians in the United States). This includes a range of users, such as sporting shooters, gun collectors, hunters as well criminals, terrorists, and drug dealers. Just 9% of civilian firearms are estimated to be registered with authorities.

Along with Switzerland, the U.S. has one of the highest gun ownership rates in the world.  In the U.S. there are almost as many guns as people – over 220 million – approximately one third of all the guns in the world.

In Canada, as of September 2009, the Canadian Firearms Program recorded a total of 1,841,154 valid firearm licenses, which is roughly 5.5% of the Canadian population (based on CIA World Factbook July 2009 estimate).

Which groups are most at risk from guns?

According to a study by the Global Burden of Armed Violence presented during the 2008 Summit on the Geneva Declaration,  740,000 deaths resulting from armed violence every year did not take place in war zones.  Many of the victims were murdered in urban areas or by family members. (2)

In the U.S.A within family members, almost nine children and teens die from gunfire every day – one child death every two hours and 45 minutes.(3)

A report, based on the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), states that 3,184 children and teens died from gunfire in 2006, a 6 percent increase over 2005.  Another 17,451 were victims of non-fatal firearms injuries, a 7 percent increase from the previous year.(4)

There are roughly 60 million children in the U.S.A between 5  and 19 years old. It could be argued that  pre-adult shootings don’t represent such a high percentage.  In comparison, more than 5,000 teenagers die in car accidents every year in the U.S.A making it the No. 1 killer of teens.(5)

Another group at risk are potential suicide victims.  Suicide claims over  844, 000 human lives each year worldwide.

These figures could be significantly reduced  by limiting access to three of the most lethal means of violence: firearms, sharp objects (such as knives) and pesticides, argue the World Heath Organization.

But does this argument hold up?

The proportion of suicides involving firearms is high amongst countries where guns are readily available as opposed to those that are not.    In Japan 0.2% and in England 2.3% where there are gun restrictions; 60.6% in the United States and 43.6% in Switzerland where there is not (6).

Are suicide rates lower where there are restrictions to guns or do folk just find other means of killing themselves ?

Japan (where guns are banned) has the second-highest suicide rate in the industrialized world. More than 30,000 Japanese commit suicide every year.(7)

Japan has long been known for having a tradition of suicide, but the numbers rose sharply in the late 1990’s amid a long economic slump that forced mass restructuring at companies and drove many men in their 50’s to kill themselves.

Yukiko Nishihara, the founder of the Tokyo branch of the international organization Befrienders Worldwide, theorizes that those who commit suicide are often hardworking, serious people. However, because they are diligent, their workload gets ever more demanding until they break down with health problems or depression.

“But the company is not always supportive, making people feel abandoned and like they’re a worthless person,” she said. “That’s when people often think of death.”

Police officers in protective gear enter an apartment in Konan, southern Japan Thursday, April 24, 2008. A Japanese girl gassed herself to death by mixing laundry detergent with cleanser, releasing fumes that sickened 90 people in her apartment house, police said Thursday as they grappled with a spate of similar suicides. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)

More recently, at least 500 Japanese men, women and children took their lives in the first half of 2008 by following instructions posted on Japanese websites, which describes how to mix bath sulfur with toilet bowl cleaner to create a poisonous gas.

One site includes an application to calculate the correct portions of each ingredient based on room volume, along with a PDF download of a ready-made warning sign to alert neighbors and emergency workers to the deadly hazard.(8)

Now it’s slowly seeping into the United States over the internet, according to emergency workers, who are alarmed at the potential for innocent causalities.

Another example of low gun access is Britain, but it has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe. Each year, in the UK, over 5,000 people take their life. The Samaritans estimate that in the UK there is a suicide every 82 minutes.

Each day, two people under the age of 24 commit suicide.  In the UK, suicide has taken over from road accidents as the number one cause of death for young adult males in the age range 18-24.

Common causes cited include bullying, abuse, poverty, homelessness, and alcohol abuse. (9)

What about Canada and the new gun laws?

The suicide rate in Canada peaked at 15.2 in 1978 and reached a low of 11.3 in 2004. The number of firearm suicides in Canada dropped from a high of 1,287 in 1978 to a low of 568 in 2004 while the number of non-firearm suicides increased from 2,046 in 1977 to 3,116 in 2003.  It is, therefore, unclear as to whether new gun laws in Canada have actually decreased gun suicides or simply shifted those suicides to other means.

What about violent crime?  Does easy access to guns contribute to an increase in attacks on innocent people?

In Canada, as in previous years, most homicides reported in 2004 were committed by someone known to the victim. Among solved homicides, 50% were committed by an acquaintance, 35% by a family member and 15% by a stranger.

This shows similarities with U.S. figures. Only 15% of homicides reported for men were by a stranger and only 8 % for females. For the years 1976-2005 combined, among all homicide victims, females are particularly at risk for intimate killings and sex-related homicides.

Legal gun ownership has also been shown to be strongly associated with an increased risk of intimate femicide – the intentional killing of a woman by an intimate partner; husband, boyfriend,cohabiting partner, same sex partner, a rejected would be lover as well as perpetrators from incestuous relationships – followed by the suicide of the perpetrator.

In South Africa, two-thirds of intimate femicide perpetrators owned a legal gun. In the United States, more murders of women are committed by guns than by all other types of weapons combined.

However, in countries were guns are rare such as India,  beatings and death by fire are common. A frequent ploy is to douse a woman with kerosene and then to claim that she died in a ‘‘kitchen accident’’.  Indian public health officials suspect that many actual murders of women are concealed in official statistics as ‘‘accidental burns’’.

One study in the mid-1980’s, found that among women aged 15–44 years in Greater Bombay and other urban areas of Maharashtra state, one out of five deaths were ascribed to ‘‘accidental burns’’. (10)

In the U.S.A, it was found that restricting gun access for abusers who had restraining orders decreased rates of intimate partner killings, while confiscation and domestic violence laws proved ineffective.(11)

Further evidence that a crime with a gun is more likely to occur in a personal environment rather than increase risk of robbery is shown by Kellermann and Reay who have stated that a gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to be used to kill a member of the household, or friend, than an intruder.(12)

What about prevention? Does access to guns help reduce gun crime?

In 1991, Texas had a shooting massacre that saw 24 people dead at Luby’s Cafeteria in the town of Killeen. In the shooting’s aftermath, one of the survivors, Suzanna Gratia Hupp, went on a personal crusade to have a law passed which would allow citizens to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense. On that day, there was no such law so she left her handgun inside her car in the restaurant parking lot.(13)

In 1996, the law was finally passed and the results were positive. In 1991, the year of the Luby’s massacre, the murder rate in Texas was 15.3 per 100,000 and the violent crime rate was 840. In 2008, the murder rate dropped to 5.6 and violent crime is down to 508.

In 1976, Washington imposed a gun ban. This has been studied by several researchers. Loftin at al (NEJM 325:1615-1620) found significant decreases in firearms homicides and no significant change in non-firearms homicides. Kleck et al (Law & Society Review 30(2):361-380) disputed their findings, arguing that the law had no effect.(14)

What about massacres? Does gun restriction have an effect?

Last week in France, a 13-year old boy stole his father’s hunting rifle and took it to school with the intention of shooting his teachers, but his family and police intervened before anyone was hurt.

The boy, who is a student at a Roman Catholic school in Beauvais, 90 kilometres (55 miles) north of Paris,  had posted an entry on his blog suggesting he wanted to commit suicide and carry out a massacre. His parents soon realized the weapon was missing and alerted authorities.

France has strict laws governing handguns.  Rifles are relatively common in a country where hunting is a popular traditional pastime.

Stringent gun legislation has been imposed  in Germany after expelled student, Robert Steinhause, killed 18 people at a school in the German town of Erfurt, using weapons obtained legally.  However, this did not stop Tim Kretschmer in Winnenden from going on a killing spree this year.

It was known that Tim’s dad belonged to the local gun club. It was also known that he had 16 weapons legally stored in a safe in his house.  He had also built a firing range in the cellar, where he regularly trained.

After Cho Seung-hui killed 32 students at Virginia Tech university in April 2007, gun rights advocate, Philip van Cleave, president of the gun rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League said; “They had gun control on campus and it got all those people killed, because nobody could defend themselves.”

This was echoed by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) who put forward a simple solution to future shooting massacres such as Virginia Tech university;  more guns.

“People are a little more cautious if somebody might have a gun there,” the GOP presidential candidate told Politico reporters. “A concealed gun carried by a responsible person — that might have ended the problem that they had at Virginia Tech with one person being killed or two people being killed.”

He sees calls for restriction on guns as an affront to freedom.(15)

“It’s the lack of access to law-abiding citizens to have guns in many places that increases our crime rate,” he said. “We just can’t prevent every tragedy of a maniac.  So to pretend this happened because of lack of laws would be the wrong thing to assume.”

He expressed concern that the Virginia Tech shootings would be exploited to crack down on civil liberties.

“I know there will be a call for, ‘Boy, we’ve got to take hold of every single gun and register the gun.’ It’s sort of like after 9/11, we had to worry about terrorists, but what we’ve done is register every American,” he said. “With national ID cards, inspection and loss of our liberties, warrantless searches, we’ve attacked law-abiding citizens. So, no, I don’t think we need more gun control for law-abiding citizens.”

Paul even went so far as to suggest that the Sept. 11 attacks could have been avoided if the pilots on the hijacked airliners had been armed. “If terrorists knew that every pilot had a gun in the cockpit, they wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “They would have all been shot and wouldn’t have accomplished their mission.”

These concerns have been raised after the recent Fort Hood shootings.  How many at Fort Hood died because of the Army’s gun ban asks Fox News?

“Beginning in March 1993, under the Clinton administration, the army forbids military personnel from carrying their own personal firearms and mandates that “a credible and specific threat against [Department of the Army] personnel [exist] in that region” before military personnel “may be authorized to carry firearms for personal protection.”

“The unarmed soldiers could do little more than cower as Major Nidal Malik Hasan stood on a desk and shot down into the cubicles in which his victims were trapped. Some behaved heroically, such as private first class Marquest Smith who repeatedly risked his life removing five soldiers and a civilian from the carnage. But, being unarmed, these soldiers were unable to stop Hasan’s attack.”

All the multiple victim public shootings in the U.S. — in which more than three people have been killed — have all occurred in places where concealed handguns have been banned.”(16)

Where guns have not been banned is Harrolds School, a remote school in Texas.  There, teachers have been allowed to carry pistols since August 2008.  Harrold’s school board maintains that the move is necessary because the town is 25 miles from the nearest sheriff’s office, making it hard to get swift help in an emergency. Its location, just yards from a major highway, America’s north-south interstate 287, makes it a potential “target” for armed maniacs.

“We are 30 minutes from law enforcement,” Harrold’s school superintendent, David Thweatt, told the Guardian. “How long do you think it would take to kill all 150 of us? It would be a bloodbath.”

“We’ve had a very disturbing trend of school shootings in the US,” said Thweatt. “It is my belief this is caused by making schools gun-free zones. When schools were made gun-free zones, they became targets for people who wanted to rack up the body count.”

Ken Trump, an Ohio-based specialist in advising school boards on security, suggested it would be more sensible to hire security guards than to give guns to “minimally supervised, minimally trained” teachers. “You could have a gun accidentally taken away, or a gun could be dislodged or discharged while a teacher’s breaking up a fight in the cafeteria,” said Trump.

Does an outright ban on guns have an effect on crime?

Switzerland, which is awash with guns, has substantially lower murder and robbery rates than England, where most guns are banned.

With its population of seven million (which includes 1.2 million foreigners), Switzerland had a homicide rate of 1.2 per 100,000.  Considerably lower than the homicide rate in handgun-banning Luxembourg which is much higher : 2.1 per 100,000 population. (17)

Why is there a higher homicidal rate in the U.S.A?

Could poverty be the reason?

A revised formula, based on recommendations from experts at the National Academy of Sciences, shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, comprising nearly 1 in 6 Americans. While in Switzerland, the structure of consumption and the quality of life are among the world’s most advanced, according to UN studies.

A report issued in 2005 by the UN agency UNICEF on child poverty in 26 OECD countries found that 6.8% of children in Switzerland were affected. Families were defined as poor if they received less than half the median income for their country. The rate in Australia was 14.7%, in Canada 14.9, in Great Britain 15.4, and the US 21.9%. (18)

However, the John Howard Society of Alberta argues that although many convicted criminals grew up in an impoverished home, poverty itself does not cause crime. Many conditions inherent in poverty—such as inadequate housing and little adult supervision of children—may be risk factors for criminal behavior, but do not guarantee it, the society asserts. The fact that most convicted criminals are from poor families may say more about the criminal justice system than it does about the cause of crime.

A system that has been criticized recently.  There is a call for stop-and-frisk searches to be more vigorously employed following the the tragic Bronx shooting in the head Monday that left a 15-year-old girl — apparently, an innocent bystander – fighting for her life.

What is known, based on city figures, is that the more stop-and-frisks the police conduct, the fewer shootings and murders the city sees.

This year, for instance, the number of stop-and-frisks is up — by about 15 percent in the third quarter alone, over the same period last year.  And, lo and behold, murders have fallen 12 percent in ‘09; shootings are down 6 percent — and the number of victims struck by bullets, like Vasquez, has dipped 3 percent.

Also known is that during routine stop-and-frisks last year, cops confiscated 6,970 illegal weapons — mostly knives, but also 747 pistols, 84 rifles and nine machine guns.

The growing use of increasingly lethal weapons in gang assaults has been driving gang homicides for the past 10 to 15 years. From 1987 to 1990, virtually all of the increase in Chicago’s gang-motivated homicides appears to be attributable to an increase in the use of high-caliber, automatic, or semiautomatic weapons. (Block and Block, 1993, p. 7).

However, others complain that stop-and-frisk is an attack on civil liberties and minorities are targeted more. (19)

James Alan Fox, the Lipman Family professor of criminal justice and professor of law, policy and society and Marc Swatt, assistant professor of criminal justice examined detailed data on victims and offenders of homicide over the past three decades with special focus on trends emerging in the years since 2000.

They found, for example, that between 2002 and 2007, the number of homicides involving black male juveniles as victims grew by 31% and, as perpetrators, by 43%. The numbers escalate even more within the same group when guns were used as weapons, with increases of 54% for victims and 47% for perpetrators.(20)

This trend is reflected in Wisconsin where the homicide rate by firearms for African-American males was 31 times that of white males.(21)

Fox and Swatt blame cuts in Federal support for policing and youth violence prevention, which may be partly responsible for the resurgence in homicide, especially among minority youth. Prevention has a cost, however the benefits are far-reaching.

Increased funding is needed for programs that protect kids and enrich their development. “Regardless of trend, be it upward, downward or stable, the concern for keeping children safe is absolutely critical,” said Fox. Notwithstanding today’s financial crisis, Fox urges restoration of federal funding for crime prevention and crime control, in particular the COPS program and juvenile justice initiatives.

“We either pay for the programs now,” urges Fox, “or pray for the victims later.”

It would seem that it is not so much the gun or lack of restrictive laws itself that is the problem, but environmental and mental health issues.

Should funding be provided to look at the root cause of these issues?

Should there be an increase in mental health support services?

Should we ask why people want to kill themselves or each other. Especially those in relationships, and raise awareness on dangers people face in these areas?  Areas that include poverty, homelessness and abuse.

If we don’t address these concerns, it could be you or I in the firing line.

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Your donation keeps us free of ads, and helps us continue to raise awareness on environmental, social and health issues.

Thank you

Ann Margrain

Founder, ‘Heroin and Cornflakes’ blog.

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Useful  links for people who are feeling depressed or suicidal:

INTERNATIONAL
World-Wide
Suicide & Crisis Hotlines  more info

Suicide and Mental Health Association International more info

http://www.befrienders.org/

Samaritans more info

Useful telephone numbers and links for Japanese residents of Japan who speak Japanese and are feeling depressed or suicidal:
Inochi no Denwa (Lifeline Telephone Service)：
Japan: 0120-738-556
Tokyo: 3264 4343

Tokyo Counseling Services
http://tokyocounseling.com/english/
http://tokyocounseling.com/jp/

http://www.counselingjapan.com

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