Public Safety committee  Yes. I would point out, however, that I think we need to take this one step further. It's good to do background checks, but it's more important to allow physicians to identify those at risk and, temporarily at least, remove something that would change the lethality of any potenti

Public Safety committee  I would say that, certainly, there is clear and firm scientific evidence, and not from journals reviewed by law students but from real peer-reviewed journals which suggest that the presence of a gun in a home is associated with an increased risk of both suicide and intimate partn

Public Safety committee  This has been a very depressing conversation for me to listen to for the last half hour, as we've lost focus entirely on why we're here, which is public health and suicide prevention. We've gotten lost in the smaller percentage of criminality, guns and gangs. We may have failed i

Public Safety committee  Clearly not. We've been very consistent since 1995 and the original Bill C-68. This is our third appearance before a committee where we've always continually and comprehensively suggested that there is a gun problem in Canada. It might not be a criminal problem, but there is cert

Public Safety committee  Thanks so much. Dr. Kapur is an emergency physician at the Ottawa Hospital. I am a rural family physician in Perth, Ontario, so we bring both ends of the spectrum to this discussion. We're representing the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, which is the national spe

Public Safety committee  Well...

Public Safety committee  I'd agree with that. Again, I'm not a criminologist; I just report what I see.

Public Safety committee  I believe there's a suicide prevention agency in Quebec that's been firmly in support of this.

Public Safety committee  No, not of—

Public Safety committee  I'm not a good listener. Just ask my wife.

Public Safety committee  Personally, I'm not aware of any having done so.

Public Safety committee  Sure, fair enough. As you know, last week a broad group of health professionals presented an open letter to members of Parliament in support of the gun registry. That group included 28 medical and nursing associations, as well as some fairly pre-eminent health professionals. We

Public Safety committee  No, I don't think that would be fair to say. I don't believe, for instance, that the Canadian Medical Association has a position on the gun registry whatsoever. Even within an individual association you're going to hear people who have differing views. However, Carolyn and I re

Public Safety committee  Yes, I do. I have a .22 and a 12 gauge shotgun. I live on about 12 acres on the water, and it's largely used for critter control, although the critters have nothing to fear from me. My son is a bowhunter, so that's not really an issue. I can tell you that I grew up in Montreal,

Public Safety committee  That's all I need. The question is, what is the role of the registry? It's not a philosophical thing for us, but a practical matter. We, as emergency physicians, be it in rural Perth or in downtown Toronto, commonly encounter people who are brought to the emergency department