BELLEVUE, WA – Canada’s billion-dollar boondoggle – the national gun registration scheme – has proven itself an abysmal failure, as that country’s violent crime rates are double those reported in the United States, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) noted today.

“We looked at violent crime rates per 100,000 population in both countries, using the most recent available data,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and we were not surprised at what we found. Since Canada started this ridiculous and costly program, violent crime has gone up dramatically, at the same time that crime in the United States has declined. Yet, there are people in the states who think Canada’s gun legislation should be the model for America.

“By comparing the data,” he detailed, “we found that the violent crime rate in the United States was 475 per 100,000 population, while up north, there were 963 violent crimes per 100,000 population. The figure for sexual assault in Canada per 100,000 population is more than double that of the United States, 74 as opposed to 32.1, and the assault rate in Canada is also more than twice that of the states, 746 to our 295 for the population rate.”

Noted CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron: “What happened in the states to actually contribute to a reduction in our overall crime rate is simple. We’ve got 38 states with shall-issue, right-to-carry concealed handgun laws. While Canada has clamped down on its citizens’ gun rights, our citizens have been empowered against criminals by passage of these laws. The disparity in crime rates between the two countries says it all about how well gun registration works to stop crime, as opposed to actually carrying guns to deter criminals, and fight back if necessary.”

A Jan. 3 story in Canada’s National Post by writer David Frum confirmed CCRKBA’s independent finding. Frum wrote, “Canada’s overall crime rate is now 50% higher than the crime rate in the United States.” Later, Frum added: “Gun registries and gun bans…do not work.”

“Instead of promising to ban legally-owned handguns in Canada,” Waldron observed, “Prime Minister Paul Martin should be urging citizens to arm themselves. He should encourage Parliament to scrap gun registration and replace it with a gun ownership and training program.”

“Since going on the warpath against guns, Canada’s Liberals have presided over the sharpest rise in violent crime in the nation’s history,” Gottlieb said. “There are more rapes, more robberies and more murders. If that tells Canadian citizens anything at all, it’s that Paul Martin and his Liberals have literally been ‘dead wrong’ on guns.”