r/canadaguns • u/Noah_S_Schwartz • Mar 28 '26

News / Politics / Activism Thank you

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I just wanted to thank all of the people that upvoted, commented on, or shared my post about my policy paper.

Given the interest of the community I thought I'd take a chance to showcase my book "Targeted".

The book is the first in Canada to tell the story of Canada's community of gun owners from their own perspective. It includes interviews with Canada's top pro-gun advocates, and ordinary gun owners.

The digital version can be downloaded for free from the University of Toronto Press website (just Google Schwartz Targeted UTP), but if you want to support balanced and fair research on gun policy, please consider buying a hard copy, or writing a review (good or bad) on Amazon.

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u/Motobud84 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

Read your book. Wonderfully structured with sound, rational viewpoints and thoughtful discussions. I have 2 questions for you if you'd be willing to indulge.

1) You mentioned that based on your respondent rate that more data would be helpful to your analysis. Was there one topic that you wanted to see a higher respondent rate that you felt was lacking and you could form a better basis for your conclusion?

2) What is one thing you would like to see changed that you think would benefit the firearm community as a whole? Could be legislation, advocation, social media presence, etc.

Thanks again for taking the time to create this great piece of literature!

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u/Noah_S_Schwartz Mar 29 '26

Great questions! For #1 having a random sample of survey data would have helped me to make more generalizable conclusions, and do more sophisticated statistical analysis, but big surveys in Canada don't ask about gun ownership like they do in the US.

For #2 I think the law abiding gun community needs a bigger presence in public life. Right now it feels like Harry Potter - it's kind of a secret world. But if mainstream institutions did more to highlight the contribution of the community to Canada's social fabric it would correct a lot of the misconceptions I highlight in the book.

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u/Motobud84 Mar 29 '26

Very valid and great metaphor on the 2nd question. It absolutely does feel taboo speaking to the general population about firearms. I personally have used your analogy of beer & wine / spirits to reference the PAL/RPAL licensing system. Furthermore, to convey what the current ASFCP program is attempting to achieve. I was successful in convincing 2 people who were very much anti-gun. So perhaps with greater education and advocacy, we may undue a lot of misconceptions. Thanks again and keep up the great work!