Disarming the Hosers

Up in Canada, which Michael Moore assures us is a crime-free socialist utopia where everyone loves each other and has sunshine shooting out of their asshole, they’re proposing to solve their gun murder program with a sweeping ban on handguns.

Liberal Leader Paul Martin is proposing a sweeping ban on handguns to combat growing gun-related violence in Canada’s cities.

“Handguns kill people—that’s why they exist, and they’re taking too many Canadian lives,” said Martin during his “safer communities announcement” at a school near Toronto’s violence-plagued Jane and Finch area this morning.

Details of the Liberal proposal include:

• a new 250 officer unit from the RCMP dedicated solely to fighting gun-related crimes, as well as other organized crime and drug trafficking;
• 75 new officers at Canada Border Services to combat illegal importation of handguns from the U.S.;
• tougher sentences for gun-related crimes, by changing the Criminal Code to double the mandatory minimum sentences for such crimes;
• encouraging community-based gun prevention, with help from a $50-million Gun Violence and Gang Prevention Fund to focus on youth at risk;
• waving the re-registration fees for owners of long guns in order to encourage compliance with the Canada Firearms Program; and
• a gun amnesty and buy-back program that draws from an Australian model, including a gun stoppers initiative aimed at ensuring the turn-in of illegal weapons.

“Taken together, these are reforms designed to reduce crime, to combat gun violence in our cities and better protect Canadians,” said Martin. 

But… but… why does Canada have a problem with handgun murder at all?  I mean, this isn’t what Michael Moore told us in Bowling for Columbine.  He said that Canadians don’t lock their doors, and he proved it!  So why the need for a handgun ban?

A handgun registry in Canada already exists and has been active for more than 60 years. But a rash of gun-related violence in some of Canada’s major urban centres has prompted Martin to promise even stricter laws. In Toronto, gunfire has killed 50 people so far this year.

So, in other words, their handgun registry hasn’t been effective in preventing a rise in gun violence.  Which is exactly the reason that this type of registry is opposed here in the United States.

The announcement will likely be popular in vote-rich urban centres. But it could anger voters in rural areas, already upset at the Liberal-created registry for long guns. The registry, created 10 years ago, was supposed to cost just $2 million—but the price tag continued to rise to more than $1 billion.

And we can see just how effective it’s been.  I wonder how much free healthcare the Canadian government could have purchased with the billion dollars they’ve pissed away on a useless gun registry.

[Tony Cannavino, president of the Canadian Professional Police Association], disagreed that a sweeping ban on handguns would be very successful in combating urban violence, considering that most guns used in shootings are obtained illegally. He said the answer is tougher sentencing –- beyond the doubling of minimum sentencing included in the Liberal proposal.

What?  You mean criminals don’t obey laws?  But… but… I thought in Canada there were no criminals!  It’s as if everything Michael Moore told me was bullshit!

But Wendy Cukier, co-founder of the Coalition for Gun Control said existing laws limiting the availability of handguns and the use of rifles and shotguns have been effective.

“Five hundred fewer people are killed with guns today than 16 years ago,” Cukier said Thursday on CTV’s Canada AM. “There’s no question that stronger gun laws in Canada have made a big difference. In spite of the surge in Toronto over the last year, gun murders are the lowest in 30 years. ... Murders of women with guns are down 66 per cent.

“So it’s really misleading to suggest we’re not getting anything for the investment in gun control.”

See, here in America our crime rate has been dropping across the board for about 20 years.  During that time period we’ve greatly expanded our right for private citizens to defend themselves, and well as putting more cops on the street and implementing tougher sentences.  I’ll make a prediction: if this goes into effect Canada’s crime rate will not drop, it will rise.