MORE GUNS, LESS CRIME?

The Toronto Globe & Mail reports what appears to be grim news about Winnipeg:

According to a report by Statistics Canada, the city is now the country's murder capital -- it has the highest per capita murder rate of Canada's nine largest urban areas.

Shootings and other violent crimes have become so commonplace in Winnipeg, especially in the impoverished northern and central parts of the city, that some streets are empty at dusk.

Many people from middle-class suburbs avoid entire neighbourhoods, even during the daytime.

Know how many murders there have been in Winnipeg so far this year?

22.

Know what Winnipeg's population is?

Approximately 600,000 people.

Here are the murder stats for Canada's nine largest metropolitan areas, according to the Globe & Mail:

Homicides by census metropolitan area per 100,000 population.

Winnipeg 4.89
Edmonton 3.39
Vancouver 2.58
Calgary 1.91
Toronto 1.80
Montreal 1.73
Ottawa-Gatineau 1.14
Hamilton 1.30
Quebec 0.84

The worst metro area in Canada -- the murder capital, the place decent people fear to go -- has a lower murder rate than the U.S. as a whole. Our murder rate is 5.5. per 100,000 population.

4.89? That's nothing. Several metropolitan areas in America (at least as of 2002) had murder rates over 10 per 100,000: Los Angeles-Long Beach; Detroit; Baltimore; Little Rock-North Little Rock; Baton Rouge; Gary, Indiana; Mobile, Alabama; Richmond-Petersburg, Virginia; and Stockton-Lodi, California. The rate in Memphis? Over 15. In, er, New Orleans? 24.4.

Also over 10 per 100,000: Jackson, Mississippi; Savannah, Georgia; Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana; and Fayetteville, North Carolina. Oh, and: Hattiesburg, Mississippi; Alexandria, Louisiana; and (over 15) Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and Victoria, Texas.

Smirkers on the right will note that quite a few of the listed cities are in Louisiana. Smirkers on the left will note that quite a few are in other, unambiguously red states in the South. Smirkers in Canada will note that, by comparison, even Winnipeg looks awfully safe.