Ban Handguns

Prohibiting pistols would not only be a symbolic gesture, it would make our society safer.

Though gun advocates will insist that handguns are more protective than dangerous – tools for guarding the home, the family, and personal property – let’s acknowledge first that, like automobiles, knives, axes, and chainsaws, handguns can harm and kill.

It’s quite clear that a commodity’s dangerousness does not predetermine its legal status. Countries around the world do not prohibit commodities on the basis of the danger that they pose. In many circumstances, this is an entirely rational decision. Automobiles arguably create benefits that outweigh their dangers. So too do knives, chainsaws, and axes (let’s not pause here to contemplate the logic of something like cannabis prohibition – it says a little too much about the limited analytical capabilities of human beings).

But what of handguns? Beyond target shooting, where is their utility? Some criminologists argue that gun ownership leads to more safety, not less, once you factor out the risks posed to gangsters (individuals using guns as part of organized – or more likely, disorganized – criminal activity). When it comes to intentional gun deaths, however, suicides and gangsters make up the biggest slice of the pie.

What we can say with some certainty is that countries with less handgun ownership and use have strikingly lower rates of intentional gun death and gun crime. If we contrast the United Kingdom (minus Northern Ireland) with the United States, the point is well illustrated – the U.K. has many fewer guns per capita, and much less gun death. Systematic research across more than one million households by Dr. Arthur Kellermann also demonstrates that in cases of domestic violence, the presence of guns in the home is more likely to precipitate lethal violence.

The banning of handguns could be seen as a symbolic gesture, one that says something about our culture and its view of the gun’s role – and it’s a gesture that I would support. It would educate the citizenry about the possibilities of a world with less violence, less confrontation, and less lethality. Will the prohibition of handguns make a society more or less safe in any given nation-state at any given time? The best research does not answer that question with any degree of certainty. What we can say, however, is that if we create a society in which guns are less common, we will be creating one that is safer.

For more on banning handguns, listen to this interview with Toronto Mayor David Miller. And check out other things Canada should Ban or Legalize in The Mark's latest series.