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CMAJ • May 13, 2003; 168 (10)
© 2003 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors

Letters
Correspondance

Debating gun registration

Boris Gimbarzevsky

University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC

The CMAJ editorial on gun registration1 seems to be based more on emotion than on solid evidence that registering guns has any measurable impact on their misuse.

In the United States, there has been a steady drop in homicide rates following the introduction of laws (in some 34 states) allowing citizens with no criminal record to carry concealed firearms.2 An epidemiologic comparison of firearms homicide rates in Canada and US states adjacent to the Canadian border showed no differences in homicide rates outside of large cities, despite a 10-fold greater number of pistols in the US states.3

My understanding of medicine is that any intervention should be based on the results of appropriate controlled experiments and that physicians should be prepared to change their patterns of practice according to the results. The editorial1 cited no controlled studies, just poor correlational studies, and — as every first-year medical student should know — correlation doesn't equal causation.

Boris Gimbarzevsky University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC

References

  1. Reasonable control: gun registration in Canada [editorial]. CMAJ 2003;168(4):389.[Free Full Text]
  2. Lott J Jr. More guns, less crime. Understanding crime and gun control laws. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2000.
  3. Centerwall B. Homicide and the prevalence of handguns: Canada and the United States, 1976 to 1980. Am J Epidemiol 1991;134(11):1245-65.[Abstract/Free Full Text]




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