Reply #15: the brief referred to, for info

[iverglas]

It was submitted in the previous Parliament in relation to the Conservatives' failed effort to abolish the long-gun registry that time around. The translation is mainly reasonable.

http://www.inspq.qc.ca/pdf/publications/1090_MemoireProjetLoiC391ArmesFeu_VA.pdf

A study was conducted recently to assess the impact on homicides and suicides in Canada of the measures implemented following the adoption of Bill C-68. The study specifications make it possible to take into account the downward trend observed since 1974 in homicide and suicide rates and the concomitant impact of other factors, i.e. annual per capita alcohol consumption, the proportion of men between 15 and 24 years of age, the proportion of population growth attributable to immigration, the unemployment rate, and the proportion of the population made up of Aboriginal peoples (Gagné, 2008). The findings reveal that the annual firearm-related homicide rate declined 0.17 per 100 000 inhabitants after the coming into force of Bill C-68. This reduction occurred primarily in respect of homicides involving rifles and shotguns. Bill C-68 has not affected homicides committed with restricted or prohibited firearms. As for the annual firearm-related suicide rate, it has fallen by 0.81 per 100 000 inhabitants. The findings of this study also show that no substitution effect has occurred following the adoption of Bill C-68, i.e. lower firearm-related suicide and homicide rates have not been offset by an increase in suicides and homicides committed by other means.

The changes that Gagné (2008) observed in homicide and suicide rates have been transposed in terms of a reduction in the numbers of homicides and suicides Between 1998 and 2004, the coming into force of Bill C-68 is associated,on average, with a reduction of 50 firearm-related homicides and 250 firearm-related suicides per year in Canada.

I would have to find the original French to know what that second-last sentence means; it seems to be a bad translation.

Those who think that my former beau's depressed, disabled 13-yr-old son had a right to kill himself (just before 1974) with his father's hunting rifle and it would be wrong wrong wrong to try to avert events like that, and the family breakdown and descent into alcoholism on the part of two family members that followed, need not feel obliged to comment.