Homicide rates in Canada rise 7%. The Canadian murder weapon of choice is now the blade.

Hi.

In the entire country of Canada there were 598 homicides in 2011!!!
www.cbc.ca...

Firearm deaths at lowest level in almost 50 years as killers favour the blade.

The number of homicides in Canada rose to 598 in 2011, 44 more than the previous year, marking the first increase in three years, according to data released today.

"The rate of firearm homicides per 100,000 population has generally been declining since the mid-1970s and, in 2011, reached its lowest point in almost 50 years."

It said there were 39 more stabbings in 2011 compared to 2010. Overall, stabbings accounted for 35 per cent of homicides, firearms for 27 per cent, beatings for 22 per cent and strangulation for seven per cent.

Metropolitan Winnipeg had the highest number of homicides at 39, as well as the highest rate among major cities, followed by Halifax and Edmonton.

So it would seem that our neighbors to the north like to stab. I was looking at some of the numbers and I think I would feel much safer in Canada.

(In 2009, according to the cdc, there were 16,799 homicides in the U.S.
Firearm homicides: 11,493)
www.cdc.gov...

I wish I was born in Canada. We'd all have nationalized healthcare and wouldn't have to worry about the huge number of gun toting homicidal maniacs.

reply to post by Trustfund


LOL I'm so glad I am an American, so I can protect myself from a gun toting maniac.
If people want to kill, they are going to do it, with whatever is handy, including their hands.

As the population becomes more of an insane society, the weapons of choice become more sadistic...

reply to post by cavalryscout


I think this makes a very interesting statement about problems in society. I'd suggest the trends there in Canada tend to show guns are not and never have been the problem. After all, you didn't hear about school shooters during one room school houses and 'Little Houses on the Prarie' eh? Everyone owned one or lived in the cities by historic accounts yet...even Dodge City, Ks has been compared to modern crime stats as a busy but not terribly bad place.

I think these trends of using a knife are both showing that homicidal intent is the problem....and the problem is getting worse and more personal. After all, I'll ask anyone here to consider something. To the person attacking, which is the more personal crime and which, for society, should ring the louder alarm bells? The guy who stands 5-25 feet away and shoots another person without remorse. ...or... The guy who kills in direct contact, literally wearing some of the gore from the victim and as likely as not, looking right into them as they are killed...with little or no remorse?

Hey, all things being equal? The gun toting guy is my choice for an assailant. At least it's not personal to the point of almost sick, with that one. It's almost 'video game' detached by comparison, IMO.

reply to post by chiefsmom


You can own guns in Canada, so I don't get your point.

reply to post by Trustfund

I wish I was born in Canada. We'd all have nationalized healthcare and wouldn't have to worry about the huge number of gun toting homicidal maniacs.

Well what is stopping you from moving to Canada??

You come across and pretend to be intelligent, so I am sure that you have a marketable talent and Canadians would welcome you.....

Well, that is until you want to make knifes illegal......

reply to post by Trustfund


Sorry, wasn't about being able to have the guns, it was about the "amount" of maniacs.

Like another poster stated, I am more concerned about the type of person that could get up close and personal with a knife. Or for that matter, just push someone onto train tracks.

Despite where someone lives geographically, there's always murderous individuals overpowered by their own sadism and narcissism who will, by any means necessary, inflict harm on others. This isn't a Canadian or American theme, but a human one.

Like most things its hard to just look at some basic things and draw facts from it, just because stabbings with knives are up doesn't mean much as it could be just that the price of chocolate going up has made women a bit more psycho and what would of been caught having an affair and just giving him a few bruises with choccy suddenly becomes psycho nutcase

reply to post by chiefsmom


Oh! better put on my toque and eat my poutine and lock the igloo door before my neighbor comes and stabs me to to death eh. Per capita the murder rate in the US is 3 times as high than in Canada.
Most of the stabbing murders anywhere in the world are due to personal conflicts. Abused Wife stabs Husband type thing or a shady deal goes south, bar fights. What ever. A person won't hide in the bushes and ambush someone and stab someone to death. You won't hear of a drive by stabbing with with 5 bystanders wounded and 2 killed.

Of course stabbings are personal. Since most Canadians who own guns know how to use them well, responsibly and with ethics you won't hear much a major crime sprees involving guns. So the media reports on the second biggest thing, knives.

I hope the anti-gun crowd are happy.
Gun control really does work -
To the benefit of the criminal class.
Sorry to hear their murder rate is up though.
I always think well of our Northern neighbors.
It wouldn't surprise me if this were the result of American TV programs.

reply to post by Asktheanimals

It wouldn't surprise me if this were the result of American TV programs.

Of course or the violent video games or violent music and movies. Maybe just maybe the cause is simply bad parenting.

Living here in the great white north, its easy to look southwards and s'n-word'......but the truth is far from simple stats....
We still have areas of most major cities where its not exactly wise to go traipsing around willy nilly.....
We have alleys paved with syringes and the pariphrenalia of the drug culture....
We have people shooting upon the street corner.....
With the heedless cars all passing by as if they were in disneyland.....
The sickness is spreading, and the zombie apocalypse looks like its gonna be zombie crack heads doing the zomming.....and the numbers are growing every day.....
Canada is a mild form of america, just a little more laid back, and a little more british is all.....
These stats tell nothing like it all.......

Originally posted by stirling
Canada is a mild form of america, just a little more laid back, and a little more british is all.....
These stats tell nothing like it all.......

I'm inclined to agree that these stats don't really say too much.

However, I would suggest that we "appear" to be a mild form of America, because we only have about 34 Million people, whereas the US has over 300 million.

Or maybe we just prefer to kill like men, up close an personal, rather than killing like cowards from a distance and putting the lives of innocents at risk.