February 8, 1995 For Immediate Release
WHAT IS KILLING CANADIAN MEN AND WOMEN?
"Mortality statistics show Liberals have their priorities all wrong," says Breitkreuz
Ottawa, Ontario - Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville today released research showing that if the Liberals really wanted to save lives that they would not be wasting hard-earned, taxpayers' dollars on gun control. Breitkreuz distributed a comprehensive chart of mortality statistics for 1992 which shows over 170,000 Canadian men and women dying of heart disease, cancer, digestive diseases, mental disorders, motor vehicle accidents, substance abuse, accidental falls, etc, etc. In order to put firearms deaths in perspective, the Breitkreuz chart also shows that in the year 1992 only 247 Canadians were murdered by firearms, only 1,050 committed suicide with firearms, and only 63 died in fatal gun accidents. "The registration of all firearms will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and Justice Minister Allan Rock cannot explain exactly how it will save even one life. How many lives could be saved by spending these hundreds of millions of dollars in areas where they have a chance of saving hundreds and possibly even thousands of lives?" asked Breitkreuz.
The 1992 mortality statistics chart shows that 76,211 Canadians died of heart and circulatory disease(1 death every 7 minutes) and only 247 were murdered with a firearm(one death every day and a half). Still the Liberal government is trying to convince us all that half a billion dollars spent on gun control will save more lives than if it was spent on heart disease research and improved treatment of patients.
In 1992, 1 woman died every 2 hours from breast cancer(4,830) but only 1 woman died every five days as a result of a homicide by firearm(69). Breitkreuz remarked, "Whether a gun is registered or not it could still be used to kill Canadian women. But I bet if we took the half billion dollars that the government will spend implementing gun control, and spent it on breast cancer research and treatment, we would save a lot more than 69 women's lives."
In 1992, one Canadian died by suicide every two hours(3,709) but only one every eight hours committed suicide with a gun(1,050). These statistics provoked Breitkreuz to ask even more questions, "Gun control hasn't reduced suicides and gun registration won't either. How many suicide prevention centres could be opened up with $500 million? How many families could have been counselled with half a billion dollars and how many domestic disputes avoided? How many women's crisis centres could be financed with this much money? These mortality statistics show that the Liberal government has it's priorities all wrong. Whether you own a gun or not, all Canadians should be asking the government these three questions: (1) How much will gun registration cost?, (2) How many lives will gun registration save?, and (3) How could this money be better spent?"
Attached: Selected Canadian Mortality Statistics 1992 - Frequency of Occurrence
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