Since the massacre of fourteen women at the Ecole Poytechnique in Montreal on December 6, 1989, there has been a long and heated debate about gun control in Canada. Many people including women's groups and Police associations demanded greater gun control. Pro-gun groups, on the other hand, argued that gun control would have done nothing to prevent the killings and any control efforts would be an overreaction. The Liberal government, which had wanted to increase gun control legislation, used the strength of the gun control groups to set up the Long Gun Registry in Canada. This would have repercussions for years in Canada and would effect political parties for good or ill up until the present.

But Canada has always had a love/hate relation with guns. In Arming and Disarming, R Blake Brown, associate professor in the Department of History at Saint Mary's University, the question of gun control in Canada actually goes back to pre-Confederation days. Early gun control legislation was usually linked to a fear of minority groups: Aboriginal Peoples, French Canadians, Irish canal workers. These controls, however, were always temporary.

The improvement in design and production of firearms in the 19th c. led to more aggressive legislation mostly aimed at pistols and revolvers. However, as the the century progressed, hunting became seen as a manly sport. As well, the Fenian Raids made many fear an invasion from the US and the government encouraged men to learn to shoot. This attitude would be amplified by the Boer War which many saw as proof that a well-armed militia could be as effective as a standing army. This position would be disproved by World War I.

There was, however, some fear about the ease of attaining guns by children at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th c. Air rifles were advertised in the toy section of the Eaton's catalogue and could be purchased very cheaply. After a rash of accidents in urban areas, the age of gun ownership was raised to sixteen.

In the 20th century, there was a great deal of legislation enacted, much of it still in force. In 1913, penalties were raised for the use of a gun in the commission of a criminal act and permits were required to carry. In 1930, a hand gun registry was established. In the 1960s, pistols were restricted and, in the 1990s, some handguns were prohibited.

The Long Gun Registry, which had proved so divisive for so long in Canada, was finally defeated by the present government. Its defeat, however, was not the result of the belief in the right to bear arms in Canada, an argument often used by gun enthusiasts, but due to the sky-rocketing costs.

With Arming and Disarming, Professor Brown gives a fascinating history of gun control throughout Canadian history. Canada is often seen as a example of good gun control and, to some extent, it is true comparatively speaking. The US has ten times the population of Canada but sixty times the number of handguns. But, as Brown shows, gun control in Canada has not always been an easy one. It has often been divided along gender, race, and class lines as well as urban versus rural, provincial versus federal, and east versus west. It is an important issue for Canadians; Arms and Disarming goes a long way in dispelling many of the myths and misconceptions about it. ( )