Myth: Other countries register guns to fight crime

Fact: Most of these laws were enacted in the post World War I period to prevent civil uprisings as had occurred in Russia. A report of “Committee on the Control of Firearms,” written by the British Home Office officials in 1918, was the basis for registration in the U.K., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.¹

Fact: Though restrictions were few in the United States and the number of legally held handguns exceeded those on the Canadian side by a factor of 10, rates of homicide were virtually identical.²

This is an excerpt from “Gun Facts” by Guy Smith, available free from http://www.gunfacts.info