Many troubling aspects of gun ban
Dear Editor:
Well I do not own any of the banned weapons, but I couldn’t help but respond to Chris Loewen’s letter supporting the federal Liberals’ knee jerk assault style weapon ban which was sprung on legal gun owners on the back of the terrible tragedy in Nova Scotia which was committed with illegally obtained firearms (Herald, May 7).
If this was in fact a ban against assault rifles, I would be fine with it. However, this is using a tragedy for simple crass politicking impacting Canadian citizen who have jumped through all the regulated hoops and legally purchased legal firearms for their use.
So rather than go after the criminals and gun smugglers and getting tough on crime, the Liberals are going after responsible gun owners with a (costly to the taxpayer) buyback program that will accomplish nothing.
Why? Because polls show it would be popular with uninformed urbanites who know nothing about Canada’s already stringent firearms’ regulations. Unlike our neighbour to the south, assault rifles have never been legal in Canada during my lifetime, at least. High capacity magazines (over five bullets) or bump stocks (converts a semi-automatic to full automatic) are prohibited in Canada. The only people who have these weapons are criminals.
Well these banned weapons may appear like those from American cop shows, they only function like regular firearms. The fact that the Liberal’s did this during the COVID-19 crisis with no opportunity for debate make this even more troubling.
However, think back to when they attempted to give themselves total spending control till 2021. The other troubling aspect is that the Liberals continue to stoke the divide between urban and rural sensibilities for political gain. This is not uniting Canada,
On a final note, Trudeau stated that. “These weapons can not be used to hunt deer but only to inflict massive casualties on humans.” Yet, First Nations folks are exempt from the ban. so they can hunt and provide for their families. Curious that.
Andrew Richards
Summerland