Regional variations in self-protection in Canada

We use the Canadian General Social Surveys of 1999 and 2004 on victimization to examine regional variations in self-protection. Analyses based on 49,624 respondents reveal that residents of Western Canada--the Prairies and British Columbia--are more likely to own guns for protection, controlling for different measures of victimization, insecurity, and urbanization. Residents from British Columbia are also more likely to practice martial arts. Respondents from Eastern Canada--Quebec and the Atlantic region--are less likely to engage in self-protection in general. We observe strong evidence that measures of victimization and insecurity are related to self-protection. Our results suggest that regional variations in self-protection reflect a combination of adversary effects, urbanization effects, and possibly cultural differences.