No stopping criminals from getting guns

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to think banning guns will prevent people from getting shot.

If that’s the case, why then do we suffer rising cases of people dying from illegal street drugs?

Just as addicts manage to get illegal drugs, criminals will continue to get illegal guns, so all the new gun ban and buyback program will do is to rack up hundreds of millions of additional debt.

The $300 million earmarked for this program would be better utilized and actually save Canadian lives if it were diverted to our backlogged medical system.

The Liberals already wasted $1 billion on a gun registry that was created in 1995, which was given a budget of $85 million, this program proved to be a costly mistake that didn’t save any lives and has since been disbanded.

Reduction in shooting deaths would have a better chance and save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by instead implementing tougher penalties for crimes committed using firearms, laws tough enough to be a real deterrent not like the current ones where murderers get a chance at parole a few years after they have killed their victims.

The cost of establishing tougher new laws would be nothing, Trudeau’s recent gun ban and buyback program is just showmanship on his part at the taxpayer expense, proof he’s planning on calling for a spring election.

Guy Bissonnette, Lake Country

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — A Czech freediver has set a world record in men’s swimming under ice.

David Vencl swam the longest distance of 80.9 metres (265 feet) holding his breath on Tuesday. In this category, freedivers cannot use any fin, diving suit, cap or weights.

The previous record was 76.2 metres (250 feet) by Stig Severinsen of Denmark in April 2013, according to the Guinness World Records.

Vencl took 1 minute, 35 seconds for the record at a lake in Lahost in northern Czech Republic.

“It was faster than I expected, I felt great,” Vencl said. “I knew for sure that I will swim the 80 metres but, of course, that weight of the moment was the only thing that was tiring me down a little bit.”

Organizers said the ice was at least 30 centimetres (11.8 inches) thick, a condition for the record to be recognized.