Liberals missing the boat on gun crime
In an article for the Toronto Sun today, columnist Lorrie Goldstein writes: “In Toronto, in addition to four people shot to death over 24 hours last weekend, seven more were wounded (five shot, two stabbed), provoking cries from the city’s left-wing mayor and the province’s Liberal attorney-general for a federal handgun ban. A-G Michael Bryant accused the federal Conservatives of being in the “holster” of the gun lobby.”
You see, if the Conservatives would just ban all handguns and strengthen the $2 billion gun registry, we would not have gun crime on Canada’s streets. “Apparently, no one told the gun-toting thugs who murdered an 11-year-old boy in Toronto last weekend.…” Goldstein writes. (See photo above: Ephraim Brown)
What we should do is ban something that is already effectively banned and make illegal guns MORE ILLEGAL, so that people who act illegally will suddenly become compliant and docile!
In the article, Goldstein quotes Statistics Canada findings related by Conservative MP Gary Breitkreuz in a recent parliamentary debate. The statistics illustrate that of the homicides committed in Canada between 1997 and 2005, 98% of the perpetrators a) did not have a registered gun, b) did not have a valid firearms license and 64% of them had a prior criminal record.
What was the percentage of licensed gun owners who used their firearms to murder someone? .00555% of the two million licensed gun owners in Canada! That is 6/1000ths of one percent vs the 98% who ignore current gun laws.
The Conservative Government proposed legislation that would institute mandatory minimum sentences for repeat firearm offences (C-10). The Liberals fought it. The Conservatives also proposed legislation which would ask criminals charged with serious gun crimes to prove why they should be allowed bail (C-35). The Liberals fought it. The Conservatives also presented legislation in which serious repeat offenders can be designated as “dangerous offenders” and sentenced indeterminately to keep the public safe (C-27). The Liberals fought it.
The problem is not the lack of enough legislation to deter gun violence; it is the criminals’ total disregard for any legislation. The problem is not registering the firearms of legal gun owners; it is Liberal opposition to effective sentencing for those who are convicted of gun crimes. What is going to happen in the Liberal world when those who flaunt existing law continue to perpetrate violence with guns? They will not face mandatory minimum sentences, they will not have to prove why they should be given bail, and they will be able to avoid being locked away to protect the public.
Why do the Liberals continue to insist on going after legal gun owners when it is criminal scofflaws who are perpetrating the crime? They are totally missing the boat. They have suggested decriminalizing pot and prostitution, but they think that ‘banning guns’ is going to stop criminal violence. Somehow their position on crime seems off center.
