control. Among the provisions legislated by the Canadian government .
was a "Firearms Acquisition Certificate" for the purchase of any .
firearm, and strengthened the "registration requirements for handguns .
and other restricted weapons." .
The purpose of the 1977 leglislation was to reduce the .
availability of firearms, on the assumption that there is a "positive.
relationship between availability and use". In Robert J. Mundt's .
study, when compared with the United States, trends in Canada over the .
past ten years in various types of violent crime, suicide, and .
accidental death show no dramatic results, "and few suggestions of .
perceptible effects of the 1977 Canadian gun control legislation". The .
only positive effect , Mundt, found in the study was the decrease in .
the use of firearms in robbery with comparion to trends in the United .
States . Informed law enforcement officers in Canada, as in the United .
States, view the "impact of restricting the availability of firearms .
is more likely to impact on those violent incidents that would not .
have happened had a weapon been at hand"(152).
In an article by Gary A. Mauser of the Simon Fraser University .
in British Columbia, he places special emphasis on the .
attitudes towards firearms displayed by both Canadians and Americans.
According to Mauser, large majorities of the general public in both .
countries "support gun control legislation while simultaneously .
believing that they have the right to own firearms" (Mauser 1990:573). .
Despite the similarities, there are apparent differences between the .
general publics in the two countries. As Mauser states that "Canadians .
are more deferent to authority and do not support the use of handguns .
in self defence to the same extent as Americans".
As Mauser points out that "it has been argued that cultural .
differences account for why Canada has stricter gun control .
legislation than the United States"(575).