FIREARMS SMOKESCREEN

I received a letter from the RCMP last month entitled, “Announcement of a firearms prohibition.” This notice suffers from the usual shortfalls of most gun laws, such as: only law-abiding gun owners will be affected; it will make criminals out of honest people; criminals will not turn in their guns; only criminals will have access to guns, etc.

It emphasizes the failure of our government to solve the right problem. And the use of an order in council to enact the firearms prohibition also illustrates a serious defect in governance.

It should be clear to any reasonably educated Canadian that this is an undemocratic, and ultimately unlawful, approach to creating legislation — a tactic that was first used by fascists. Such a move to bypass Parliament should be rejected by all Canadians interested in maintaining an open democracy.

This prohibition is also an opportunistic deflection, using the tragic shooting in Nova Scotia as an excuse to enact some form of gun law designed to placate proponents of gun regulations. The Liberals don’t want to deal with the real problem of gun violence in Canada.

Why? The major driver for calls to control, not guns, but gun violence, comes from criminal activity in major Canadian cities. For instance, in 2019, Toronto alone had 492 shootings involving 240 injuries and 44 murders.

But the prime minister, the mayor of Toronto and other politicians and public servants, like the minister of Public Safety (and former police chief of Toronto), are crippled by political correctness. What they don’t want to say is that the great majority involved illegal guns in urban communities. Legal gun owners are an easier target, and so the prime minister can say he is doing something to address gun violence while avoiding a much thornier social and political issue. Dan Palmateer, Truro