Map(s) of the Week: Gun ownership, week 2

This week, our series on gun ownership in the GTA continues with three more maps:

Percentage change in the firearms licence rate, 2004-2008

This is a map showing which GTA neighbourhoods have had their gun licence rates rise, fall or stay stable over the last four years.

The firearms licence rate has generally fallen or remained stable through most of the GTA over the last four years. Across the area, the gun license rate fell from 16.1 per 1,000 to 14.5 per 1,000 over the period.

The licence rate rose by more than 5% in 18 FSAs, with L4L (Woodbridge) L4J (Thornhill) L4S (northeast Richmond Hill) and L3Y (Newmarket) topping the list.

There are some odd cases. L4H (Kleinburg) and L5W (the Derry Rd. W. and Mavis Rd. area of Mississauga) are under 30% of their gun licence rate in 2004. What seems to have happened in Kleinburg (where population increased from 7,710 to 49,799 over the four-year period) was that the gun licence rate has moved from a rural level of 67 per 1,000 to a suburban level of 16 per 1,000. The actual number of licence holders in L4H has increased.

L6C (Unionville) and L7A (northwest Brampton) show similar patterns.

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Proportion of gun owners who hunt

One question about firearms ownership is what, if anything, the weapons are used for, and how that might vary by neighbourhood.

The question is hard to answer from public records, but one point of comparison is Ontario hunting permits.

This map shows the percentage of firearms licence holders who took out Ontario hunting permits in 2007, making the assumption that they fall into the same group. I realize that that creates problems with bow hunters, who need hunting permits but may not also be firearms owners.

Several patterns emerge. The proportion of hunters is highest at 73% in L4H (Kleinburg), followed by L4L (Woodbridge), M6E (the area off Dufferin between Eglinton Ave. W. and St. Clair Ave. W.) and M6M (Keele St. and Eglinton Ave. W.) and L6A (Maple).

At the other end of the scale, we see a string of high-income neighbourhoods in the central city where gun owners seem to seldom hunt. In Toronto, the map strongly resembles the income map of the city - perhaps wealthy people are more willing to keep a valuable firearm even though it isn't being regularly used.

At the bottom of the list we have M4Y, centred on Jarvis St. and Wellesley St. E., where as few as 14% of registered gun owners seem to have hunted last year.

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Hunting permits

L4H (Woodbridge) leads the  map of 2007 provincial hunting permits, with 24.2 residents per 1,000 having bought one last year.

The fishing and camping maps showed that Oshawa and nearby towns lead the region in outdoor recreation, and the hunting map shows the same pattern. Three of the top six FSAs for hunting permits are in Oshawa (L1H, L1G, L1J), and north Pickering (L1Y) is also in the top six.

Comments

[Frank Luke]

This data is all very nice - what is the purpose though? For the next set of maps, try mapping out violent crimes according to postal code. A source of information could be the same as the one used by the Canadian Center for Justice Statistics to produce reports such as "Firearms and Violent Crime" and "Homicide in Canada, 2006" (both available from StatsCan). It would be interesting to see the results...

[Douglas Bailey]

It would seem that much of this is statistics for the sake of statistics.

I'm not sure what the information about firearms licences and hunting have to do with each other. Many firearms owners are target shooters, and target shooters only. A large proportion of skeet, trap and sporting clays shotgun shooters do not hunt, but what does that have to do with anything.

Handguns are illegal for hunting; however the owner must have an RPAL. Some hunters also have RPALS, others PALS. What can you conclude from that?

Many firearms owner like myself used to hunt, but don't anymore, but still maintain an outdoors card; nevertheless, we are still active target shooters.

There seems to be an underlying inference that guns are only related to hunting.....not so. The shooting sports involve activities totally unrelated to hunting.

While interesting statistically, I'm not sure that this study proves anything

[mark]

After I posted my last comment I noticed that you chose to included a photo of HAND GUN ammunition for your week 2 map. I am cynical of your motives. Your article does not examine restricted weapons ownership so why is the ammo for hand guns?

[Mike Tighe]

And the purpose of all your hard work is? For your next search try this - do a study of illegally owned handguns and handgun crimes to the race, education and employment of the criminals involved.

Next do a study of gun crimes committed by licensed gun owners.

Then you'd have something worth reading. But that's too much work for you isn't it?

[Kai]

This paper would never do a study of illegally owned handguns and handgun crimes based on race, education, if they are landed immigrants and not Canadian citizens and employment and income because after all that would be discrimination and isolate a minority that we can't do because that would be "polically incorrect and wrong", but this study isn't (sarcastic). Its useless and is a violation to everyones privacy and their right to own a gun, even for self defense. This study is just another open door for the criminals to come knocking at your door to break it in as would be normal for them. What is yours is theirs because they have no other ability when they came here but to kill and steal. Isn't multiculturalism wonderful and isn't the justice system working well in this country. I do feel that part of this problem is not always being helped by the police and could very well, be behind the increase in breakin's of gun owners due to a leak of address information of registered gun owners. Just a thought. Maybe there is something in it, for them to keep this city hostage to gain more control over the citizens. Where is Batman when you need him!

[ron mcallister]

What is the point of a handgun other than to kill someone or shoot at a target. Folks who use handguns need to find another sport. Handguns have no reason to be in existence other than in the hands of law enforcement agents. Full stop.

[Inteligento]

Its OK to shoot people the police do it all the time.
Its just not OK to shoot innocent people.
And how can you get good at shooting the right people (criminals) without shooting the wrong people (innocent bystanders) if you can't practice?

[Raging Ranter]

There are reasons other than hunting to own "hunting" weapons like rifles and shotguns. I used to hunt deer and geese, but not anymore. However, I still enjoy skeet shooting at the farm in Manitoba. I don't own any weapons myself, but I do want to buy a Browning Over & Under for skeet shooting at some time in the future.

I'm not a big fan of handguns, but I understand that if the gun control lobby is successful in banning handguns, they will set their sights on remaining legal gun owners. They won't stop until all guns are banned, and the only way to own one will be to purchase it illegally. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol and it doesn't work for drugs, but they seem to have faith that it will work for guns.

Hunters and hobbyists were NEVER the driving force behind crime in this country. To target them with the bureaucratic monstrosity known as the "long gun registry" was the worst sort of cheap politics. Gun owners made an easy scapegoat, and allowed the government to act as though it were making progress in fighting gun crime.

[PW]

Ron Mcallister's suggestion that "... handguns have no reason to be in existence other than in the hands of law enforcement agents" demonstrates that he is unaware of recent reports, whereby members of law enforcement have been caught diverting "amnesty" guns back to the market. This has happened in two different major Canadian cities via two unrelated amnesty programs, folks. The argument that we can only trust law enforcement with restricted weapons, but cannot place any trust in citizens, is demonstrably bogus. This fact is sadly lost on Mr. Mcallister.

[Straight Shooter]

Has The Star ever published an article series based on the legal/legitimate use of firearms? Why not? This would be good news. You'll get lots of flashy pictures of guns and that has got to sell some papers....Has the Star ever run an article series on Gun Control laws that have been enacted and the exact effect that they have had on crime and/or accidents in Canada? Why not? This is great news. Let all see uninterrupted stats of what the effect has been and lets allow the reader to decide. These articles can be neutral (you might need to look up that definition) so as to not sway the reader into liking guns or hating guns.

[Muskokaphotog]

Time and time again, the unwritten inference is that owning a gun is deemed somehow BAD and only BAD people own or use guns. This is no less discriminatory and racist that the attitude that a Black person wearing bling must be a rapper who swears. Another fact is that people have been fascinated with instruments of war ever since military existed. The logic of banning guns is so misdirected. Has Mayor Miller ever watched an Ultimate Fight night? The concept of "gun violence" doesn't compare with the promoted entertainment of these body bashing spectacles that are watched by all ages without restriction. People scream with delight and hope to see broken limbs, smashed heads FOR ENTERTAINMENT!

[xmountie]

There was an observation by the author that there were few, if any, hunting licences purchased by those in the “wealthy districts”. The author does not take into account that those who can afford it, do their hunting in areas outside Canada and as a result would not require a licence from Ontario. A friend of mine does very little hunting in this country and even when he does it is in a different province.

[Vladyslav Strashko]

It's interesting to note how you dishonestly link this data about law-abiding activities with the crime stories, e.g. I got to this page through the story about a youth (a criminal under Criminal Code section 92) with illegal handgun at the school property... He had nothing to do with legal gun owners (hunters, sportsmen, police officer, collectors and security guards)