Controlling the critics

Federal Liberals promised tougher gun control measures during the 2015 election campaign, and in late March, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale finally introduced long- awaited amendments to Canada’s Firearms Act. The bill came under immediate attack from both sides of the gun debate and it continues to heat up. Maybe Minister Goodale struck the right balance after all between measures to ensure the safety of Canadians, while protecting the rights of responsible gun owners? Shooters and hunters have a long, storied history in Atlantic Canada. Few people are opposed to responsible gun owners hunting geese, ducks, deer, moose and small game etc. What they do oppose are weapons like semiautomatic rifles which have no use except to do harm to other people.

And few people are going to question common sense regulations that sales of firearms are recorded and background checks are in place to keep them out of the hands of criminals or people with mental health issues. While neither side in the gun debate is happy with the bill, the silent majority of Atlantic Canadians very likely supports the modestly tougher legislation.

The bill is weighted towards enhanced background checks for criminal activity or mental health issues. It toughens rules around transportation of guns and tightens record keeping for the sale of firearms. What is doesn’t do is restrict sales to responsible gun owners. The gun lobby should be happy but any registrations or checks are too many. Give an inch today and they’re coming for your handguns tomorrow and your rifles and shotguns next week.

Gun control groups condemned the legislation because it provides “weak measures” and “bare minimums” which fail to place public safety over the rights of gun owners.

A vocal critic of the bill is a father whose son – an RCMP officer - was shot and killed by a man who later took his own life. The father says the amendments would do nothing to keep firearms out of the hands of people like the man who killed his son.

The gun lobby see the bill as a step closer to the return of a gun registry. That previous bureaucratic boondoggle helped cripple gun reform laws for years because of public outrage over massive costs overruns.

Now, critics use the ill- fated registry to attack the government instead of addressing the serious issue of public safety. Shame on them.

They are reminded that in the U. S. — the home of the powerful National Rifle Association and the sacred 2nd Amendment — federal law requires that records be kept on every gun sale through federally licensed firearms dealers. Mr. Goodale predicted that the contentious issue of gun control would provoke heated rhetoric. The minister tried for a consensus view, that advances public safety, assists police and is respectful and fair in dealing with lawabiding firearm owners and businesses.

The Canadian way is to compromise – for both sides to come together and find common ground to support gun safety rules and regulations that we can all live with.