British Columbia

That's why firearm restrictions or "gun control" is wholly irrelevent to someone planning to commit murder.

Are you saying that if I was planning to murder someone, the gun restrictions we have wouldn't make it harder for me to get a gun to do it? That seems absurdly false.

It's true that because of our southern neighbour, our gun laws don't make it particularly hard for people involved in smuggling (gangs) to get guns.

when there is a need for self protection from violence or rape, people are helpless victims.

It's not really our gun control laws that make it difficult for people to defend themselves. It's our laws against proactive self-defence. Even if we let everyone in the country own guns, it still wouldn't be legal to carry a weapon for self defence.

In Canada (statcan.gc.ca) :

2.3 homicides per 100k
40% of homicides are shootings
23% of homicides are gang related

In the USA (cde.ucr.cjis.gov):

7.8 homicides per 100k
75% of homicides are shootings.
13% of homicides are gang related

If you take out the gang related homicides, Canada has 1.8 homicides per 100k where the US has 6.8 per 100k. It's like a factor of 4. Yes, some of the difference is going to be attributable to their less equitable economic and healthcare systems, but do you really look at those numbers and say more guns will make us safer?