Citation

Hartnagel TF. Can. J. Criminol. 2002; 44(4): 403-423.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, Canadian Criminal Justice Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Gun control was the subject of increased public attention and debate in Canada in the 1990's as more restrictive legislation was passed by Parliament. Although there was a good deal of public support for these increased restrictions, there was also vocal opposition in some segments of the population. However there has been little multivariate research directed at explaining variation in attitudes toward gun control in Canada. The present research uses data from a telephone survey of adult residents of the Province of Alberta to test hypotheses concerning instrumental and ideological explanations of support for universal registration of firearms. These hypotheses are tested with controls for characteristics of the respondents. The results are mainly supportive of the instrumental (liberal) perspective: respondents who believe gun control is effective at crime control are more likely to support universal registration, although there is some evidence that internal (conservative) attributions of the causes of crime results in less support for universal registration.