ong 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
             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
             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). Surprisingly enough,
             nationwide surveys i...