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Canadian Teen's Slaying Kindles U.S.-Style Gun Control Debate
A woman leaves flowers at the downtown Toronto site where Jane Creba was shot while shopping with her sister a day after Christmas. Crime has become a hot campaign issue leading up to parliamentary elections next Monday.
(By Frank Gunn -- Canadian Press Via Associated Press)
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"It's not a Canadian value for Canadians to carry handguns," insisted Amy Butcher, a spokeswoman for Martin. "We strongly believe there is no place in our society for handguns."
Other than law enforcement and military personnel, only target shooters, collectors and a small group of trappers and bush pilots may legally own handguns. Hunters are allowed to own long guns, but they must be registered.
Registration for all handguns has been required since 1934, and regulations have been periodically strengthened. Now, approximately 500,000 handguns are legally registered in the hands of collectors and target shooters.
Long guns -- rifles and shotguns -- came under the controls in 1995 during another spasm of concern about crime, following a 1989 mass murder at a Montreal school in which 14 women were killed and 13 were wounded. All guns must now be registered and all owners must be licensed.
But the registry and licensing program has been controversial. The cost has soared with bureaucracy, which collectors and shooters say is suffocating. Some doubt the program's effect on crime, while critics point out that none of it deals with illegal guns.
The proposed handgun ban "would cost taxpayers a lot of money, and it would not improve crime rates," said Mauser, the criminologist. "Very few legally registered guns are stolen and find their way into crimes."
Sometimes this happens, however. A gun used in a triple murder here in September was stolen from a collector's stash after thieves worked two days with a sledgehammer and blowtorch to break through his concrete-and-steel safe.
Guns kept by collectors "are just one break-in away from being used in a crime," Martin said.
Researcher Robert Thomason in Washington contributed to this report.
