Dear Editor:
Once again, the Liberal government is proposing legislation that misses the mark as far as gun control is concerned.
Should there be gun control, no question, yes. Are legal gun owners the cause of gun violence? Well, no. Fatal shootings overwhelmingly are the result of illegal ownership especially for gun crime. Suicide is a different matter that for some reason has not been talked about but is definitely a cause for concern.
In late May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “The majority of gun owners in Canada are responsible and follow the law, but rising gun violence is unacceptable.” No statistics or studies were brought forth to demonstrate that the guns used in criminal acts came from legal gun owners.
It appears that the greatest threat is from firearms smuggled or illegally imported from the U.S. or beyond. And yet previously in 1995, the gun registry, Bill C-68, the Liberal government said would cost $2 million to make Canadians safe, cost about $2 billion and was scrapped in 2012 as it proved to be not effective for its intended purpose. What if that $2 billion had been spent on crushing the smuggling and illegal importing of guns? Is it quite likely that the tragic mass shooting in Nova Scotia in April 2020 could have been avoided?
Instead, Trudeau used that horrible waste of life to push a ban on firearms that had been legally owned and registered by Canadians.
Fast forward to the senseless school shootings in Uvalde, Texas. Here the gunman had legally purchased the automatic rifle he used but was likely deranged and mentally disturbed, as was the Nova Scotia gunman.
Once again Trudeau is using a horrible and tragic event to push handgun legislation even though the Texas shootings did not involve handguns. He said, “Other than using firearms for sport shooting and hunting, there is no reason anyone in Canada should need guns in their everyday lives”.
Handgun ownership legislation is quite strict in Canada so what is the real reason Trudeau is focusing on this?
Trudeau states, “Gun violence is a complex problem, but at the end of the day, the math is really quite simple: the fewer guns in our communities, the safer everyone will be.” Let’s use Trudeau’s philosophy and apply it to smoking, the number one “ preventable “ cause of death and disease. The math is really quite simple: ban smoking and save over 48,000 lives (and $16.2 billion in healthcare). There is no reason anyone in Canada should need to smoke in their everyday lives. The fewer cigarettes in our communities, the more people will live. Where is the war on tobacco and the doom and gloom?
Life is hard, challenging and definitely not simple. Someone thinks it is or is simple themselves. You decide.
Michael Thorp,
Mount Forest