Canadians complying with gun control law
The New York Times
OTTAWA - After court battles and boycotts, something unexpected is happening with Canada's new program to license all gun owners: It is working.
With a New Year's Eve deadline looming, as many gun owners have been rushing to fill out applications each week as filled out applications in all of 1999.
"We are turning out temporary licenses to the tune of 100,000 a week," said David Austin, spokesman here for the Canadian Firearms Center, a federal agency. By mid-December, 1.8 million Canadian gun owners, or roughly 80 percent of the total, were in compliance with the new license law, he estimated.
Six months ago, one-tenth of that number were in compliance, and anti-gun-control groups were crowing that North America's strictest gun control law was turning into an expensive flop.
"Now it is working amazingly well," said Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, a lobby supported by 350 public safety organizations in Canada.
Initially, most Canadian gun owners procrastinated, hoping for deliverance from the bother and intrusion of applying for a license to own a rifle or shotgun.
But Canada's Supreme Court unanimously upheld the gun control law in June.
By creating additional hurdles to gun ownership, the gun control law is wringing little used firearms from society.
