When Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau tables his proposed freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns, the legislation will sail through with a comfortable majority. In the US Senate, however, even the modest gun reforms proposed by Democratic leader Chuck Schumer appear to face unassailable Republican opposition. A political gun culture which sees, as one Canadian minister put it, “gun ownership as a privilege, not a right”, has diverged on the issue from its southern neighbour since way back in 1860s.
Today gun ownership in Canada stands at 35 civilian firearms per 100 people, while in the US it tops 120. Not surprisingly Canada has had far fewer mass shootings and gun deaths per capita than the US.
After a deadly rampage in Nova Scotia in 2020, Trudeau announced plans to ban and buy back 1,500 varieties of military-style rifle, including the popular AR15 (Armalite), and has already expanded background checks. His Bill would also create a new “red flag” law allowing courts to require those considered a danger to themselves or others surrender firearms to police. Rifle magazines would be permanently altered so they could never hold more than five rounds, and sales of large-capacity magazines would be banned.
Such measures are, however, anathema to the 50,000 who gathered in Houston, Texas, for the weekend conference of the five million-member National Rifle Association (NRA), which the organisation called “14 acres of guns and gear”.
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Its cheerleaders, including former US president Donald Trump – a recipient in 2016 and 2020 of $50 million in NRA campaign support – and likely presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz, were not going to be shamed by the Uvalde bloodbath in the same state. The organisation, which disburses 98 per cent of its congressional political donations to Republicans, still retains a terrifying political clout even while polling shows the majority of Americans are in favour of stricter gun laws and even a majority of gun owners back stricter pre-sale gun checks. The north-south contrast is striking.