(written for rabble.ca's election coverage)
Everyone who has thought about the issue knows that a complete ban on hand guns will not end gang violence in Toronto and in other large Canadian cities.
But it’s an essential step to take.
Both Toronto Mayor David Miller and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty are calling for such a ban. They have the support of NDP leader Jack Layton who wants the cities to have the power to enact such a ban.
Access to legal hand guns is already tightly controlled in Canada and such weapons must be registered. Most of the hand guns used on the streets of Toronto enter the country illegally from south of the border. Others, however, are stolen or acquired from legal gun owners.
A hand gun ban would send a strong signal that such weapons will not be tolerated and have no place in our cities. Who, apart from the police, has any conceivable legitimate need for such weapons?
For some unaccountable reason, Stephane Dion does not support a ban on hand guns, saying that his priority is to outlaw assault weapons.
The man in the way on this is Stephen Harper whose party panders to the gun lobby. His government decided it would no longer enforce the long gun registry even though it was the law of the land. Harper believes he has the right to pick and choose which laws need to be enforced.
His line is that we should increase the criminal sentences for those who wield guns, and he insists that the other parties are soft on criminals.
After a gun has been fired, he’s a tough guy. When it comes to keeping guns off the street and addressing the social ills that contribute to gang violence he’s AWOL.
(Despite the recent spate of daylight shootings, the number of homicides in Toronto is lower this year than it was up to this point last year.)
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5 comments:
I live in Toronto, and banning handguns won't make me feel safe. As it is, only a handful of people in Ontario have carry permits for handguns, but a substantial percentage of the Toronto population is carrying. Anyway, people aren't going to make up their minds to vote for a party because it wants to ban handguns. The NDP needs to articulate a clear socialist position on issues. It's already bungled its chance with the issue of collusion in gas pricing. God help us, the Liberals came up with a better position than the NDP, and the NDP should own that issue. The Liberals proposed a plan, the NDP proposed trusting Super Jack to punish the evildoers.
I'm completely surprisred by your stance on the issue of hanguns. Prof. Laxer please explain to me how a complete handgun ban would stop the proliferation of gun crimes in Toronto. You can't! I am a legaly qualified and licensed gun owner, and have been for thirty years and in all those years I've killed no one and have no intentions of doing so. Why don't you face the facts taking my firearms away will change nothing. WAKE UP!!!
I was very surprised from your comment "A hand gun ban would send a strong signal that such weapons will not be tolerated and have no place in our cities" I believe as Canadians we have sent very strong signals that murder is unacceptable but the gangs seem to tune out. Thugs who are decided in protecting and expanding their lucrative drug market couldn't care less what laws we pass. They will find a way to do what they feel needs to be done. But I'm surprised that as a Prof you are willing to remove rights form ordinary Canadians just to send a message to these thugs. What message will we be sending next; cars are too fast, do we really need to go over the speed limit, ban any car that goes over the speed limit? Let’s ban the internet simply because it’s being used by pedophiles and terrorists to commit their atrocities? How many messages would you like to send? Maybe if Canada became a dictatorship and dictated how everyone must live then maybe some of these thugs might start to listen...but I'm pretty sure that’s when you would start tuning out.
a "strong signal", I'm sure that the gangsters shooting up Toronto will be terrified by the striping law abiding citizens of there legally acquired guns. your thesis is nonsense, a sport shooter with safe and proper storage and handling of the firearms harms society in no way. this is a smoke screen and will solve nothing, guns will continue to stream into the country from the u s, and people will be shot by these guns. why don't you geniuses formulate a plan to stop the smuggling of these guns into Canada instead of playing politics and passing laws that will have no effect on crime, cost billions in compensation to sport shooters and collectors, and may attract more smuggling.
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