CALGARY—Albertans are more likely to think gun laws are too strict and shouldn’t be strengthened, according to a national poll done by the Angus Reid Institute.

The opinion study published May 24 polled Canadians on gun ownership, possession laws and the prevalence of gun violence in the context of Bill C-71, a hotly debated federal bill passed Tuesday that will tighten restrictions on purchasing and owning guns.

According to the poll, 22 per cent of Albertans think gun laws aren’t strict enough, compared to 44 per cent nationally, and 53 per cent oppose or strongly oppose a complete ban on civilian possession of handguns, compared to 31 per cent nationally.

Fifty-nine per cent of Albertans said they feel they know Canadian gun laws well or very well, compared to 51 per cent of all Canadians — a statistic Rod Giltaca, the executive director of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, said may account for whether a respondent supports more gun restrictions.

“As more people become familiar with current regulations and understand the actual issues around violence, they tend to view more regulation as ineffective,” said Giltaca, who is also a firearms instructor for the RCMP Canadian Firearms Program. This is something the study itself notes, stating that respondents with no knowledge of current gun laws are more likely to say gun laws aren’t strict enough.

Giltaca said he believes this shows gun laws in Canada are stricter than many people are aware, which he said diminishes the value of public opinion surveys.

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Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, disagreed. She said she thinks it’s the opposite — many Canadians think they know their gun laws, but don’t, and become more supportive of restrictions as they learn more.

“If people knew more about where the gaps were in the laws, they’d be more active in supporting gun control,” she said.

Cukier said gun laws have become much less strict in Canada in the past decade, and that many of the provisions suggested in Bill C-71 will just restore previous legislation. For example, in 2012, Bill C-19 removed the requirement to register non-restricted firearms that had been in place since 1977. Bill C-71’s requirement that business owners keep records of gun sales will just reinstate the accountability that was lost with Bill C-19, said Cukier.

In a statement released after Bill C-71 was passed, the Canadian Doctors for Protection from Guns said the “modest but important changes” made by the bill will “make Canadians safer.”

Cukier said the results of the study did not surprise her, given the rate of gun ownership in the Prairies compared to the rest of Canada.

According to the survey, Albertans were more likely to own a gun — 25 per cent of respondents in Alberta said they currently own a gun, compared to 14 per cent nationwide, with most saying their guns are for hunting (43 per cent) or recreational shooting (42 per cent).

Both Cukier and Giltaca said recreational shooting has risen in the past several years. Giltaca sees this as proof Canadians are getting more comfortable with guns. Cukier, however, said she thinks recreational shooting is often used as an excuse for people who want to own a gun for self-defence purposes — something that is not permitted in Canada, unlike the United States.

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Overall, the poll found Albertans are less likely than the national population to support a complete ban on civilian possession of guns. Seventy per cent said they think the issue of gun violence in Canada is overblown by politicians and the media, compared to 50 per cent nationwide.

Cukier said she sees a disconnect between the realities of gun violence in Canada and many citizens’ perception of it.

“I think that a lot of people don’t think about gun violence until it affects them directly,” she said, noting that 2016 data from Statistics Canada found firearms-related violence is much higher in the Prairie provinces, where gun ownership is higher.

Giltaca said he thinks too much focus is placed on further restricting legal gun ownership instead of criminal gun use and gang violence.

He said he’s opposed to Bill C-71.

“It does nothing to solve the problem of violence associated with firearms. And we want that violence to end, too,” he said.

While the Angus Reid survey found the majority of Canadians support stricter gun laws, its findings contradict a federal report published April 11 that showed Canadians divided over gun regulations. In that report, many Canadians said they felt Bill C-71 targets law-abiding gun owners and not illegal firearms.

Cukier said she feels public opinion surveys do a better job of representing Canadians’ views on gun restrictions than reports like the April 11 federal report, and added that while Albertans may have differed from the national average on some points, overall the majority of respondents in Alberta agreed on others.

For example, 91 per cent of Albertans said they support or strongly support firearm licences for non-restricted firearms, compared to 93 per cent nationally. And 69 per cent of Albertans said they support or strongly support making businesses keep records of all gun sales, as well as firearms licence information of the buyer for at least 20 years, compared to 80 per cent nationally. This is something Bill C-71 will introduce, and something Cukier said Alberta has historically opposed.

“There’s been a lot of activity there, for 30 years, opposing gun control,” she said.

The online poll surveyed a representative random sample of 1,525 Canadians from all provinces between April 26 and April 30. The margin of error was plus-or-minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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