Politics
This page is my archive of well written, published commentaries relevant to the debunking of gun control and its proponents.
Retired cop shoots holes in mayor's strategy
By GARY GRANT
Does anyone really believe that a ban on handguns in the City of Toronto will have a meaningful impact on the gunplay on our streets?
The mayor and his supporters on council think so, but while the idea is noble and well intentioned, such a ban would not slow down the gang bangers, drug dealers and thugs one bit. There is too much money and turf at stake.
Cops know most of the shootings in this city are related to the drug trade. Whether it is a drug rip-off, a turf war, a revenge shooting, a home invasion or an addict pulling a robbery at an ATM, drugs are the elephant in the room.
Take the case of Andre Blair who callously pumped four bullets into the head and chest of Andrew Latouche as he sat in the front seat of a van. Blair was already out on two separate bails, one for possessing a semi-automatic handgun and another for drug trafficking when he calmly pulled the trigger less than a foot away from his victim in March of 2006.
Do you think a ban on hand guns would have stopped this cold-blooded killer? Not bloody likely. These thugs don't respect bans and will always find a way to obtain their weapon of choice as there is no shortage of sources to illegally obtain a hand gun.
It is well known in law enforcement circles that Canadian criminals send high quality marijuana and ecstasy to the States in return for cocaine and hand guns. Free trade is alive and well.
Let's get real, hand guns for all intents and purposes are banned. It is a criminal offence to possess a hand gun without a permit.
Stringent conditions must be met before anyone is permitted to own, let alone carry a hand gun, yet these punks remain armed to the teeth with illegal guns despite the best efforts of Toronto Police.
The real issue is why was Andre Blair, and hundreds of others like him, out on the street when he was already facing weapons charges? While out on bail for the weapons charge Blair was arrested for trying to sell cocaine to an undercover cop and, unbelievably, was granted bail once again! Time and time again violent criminals are arrested only to be turned loose by the courts enabling them to continue their criminal lifestyle.
STAGGERING RATES OF RECIDIVISM
In the five years prior to my retirement last June, the recidivism rates for firearms related offences were staggering. The number of offences committed by persons already on bail for a firearms offence increased by over 125% and fully one-quarter of all firearms offences were committed by an offender on bail.
Similar numbers apply to repeat offenders who were already on probation for a firearms offence. In fact, the number of people arrested for a firearms offence with a previous conviction was higher than first-time offenders. Clearly, it is many of the same gunmen who continue to kill, maim and intimidate due to a revolving door system of justice that keeps letting them back out on the street despite the obvious risks.
This is not a battle of ideologies between the anti-gun and pro-gun sides. This is an all-out war against organized crime, street gangs, drug dealers and various other low-lifes who glorify gun violence. The Toronto Police Service uses multiple strategies to wage this war.
SIGNIFICANT SUCCESS
Community Mobilization, the Guns and Gangs task force, the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) and the Crime Stoppers Cash for Guns program have all had significant success in removing dangerous offenders and crime guns from our streets.
The province has weighed in with funding for two additional TAVIS teams in high-risk areas. I hope the funding is long term rather than a quick fix because this is going to be a protracted war.
Is it too much to ask our courts to take a hard look at who they are releasing on bail, to prosecute those who fail to appear for their court appearances and to treat repeat offenders with the severity the community deserves?
Britains regretting gun bans
To the surprise of no one visiting here, the British are realizing all too late that it is foolish to allow your gun rights to be eroded
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Petition to kill the Canadian gun registry
Here in Canada, the fight for personal freedoms and common-sense government remains as lively as it does with our counterparts in the United States.
To that end, the Canadian Taxpayers Federations is collecting names to add to their petition to kill the gun registry. The CTF is not a pro-firearm organization. They are simply concerned with the unconscionable waste of money that the Canadian Firearms Registry has created, as well as its total lack of efficacy.
In their own words:
The federal government continues to pour money into the federal gun registry which is now estimated to cost $2 billion by 2012. The Auditor General of Canada – at the urging of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation – conducted a scathing audit of this registry in 2002. However, the Auditor General could not complete her audit, given the scattering – if not deliberate hiding – of costs across the federal bureaucracy.
The federal gun registry is beyond salvation. Duck hunters, farmers and law abiding gun owners do not pose a threat to public security, criminals do! The registry is too costly and it is not working. We the undersigned demand that you:
* Shut down the gun registry; and
* Reallocate future budgeted gun registry spending to front-line policing and effective controls against illegal firearms at our borders, airports and ports.The CTF does not oppose the registration requirements that were in place and working prior to 1995.
Couldn't have put it better myself. I believe their petition will create an entirely separate but synergistic impact upon the goals that organizations like the CSSA and NFA are trying to achieve.
Thank-you for taking a moment to fill out their form via the link posted above.
Canadian Mayor Ridiculed for his "off-target" anti gun rhetoric
*Update: Canadian Firearms and US firearms owners alike have been maligned by Mr Miller's ongoing smear campaign. He has gone out of his way to ensure that you know you are not welcome in Toronto (unless you have an event that represents large dollars to city coffers anyhow).
Please ensure that you browse the information rich web site dedicated to boycotting Toronto by clicking on the picture below.
Original Post:
Canadians are well aware of the city of Toronto's "so called mayor" David Miller.
Why do we say "so called"?
Call it well-deserved Karma. Miller shamelessly demonizes legitimate, law abiding firearms owners in Canada as part of his ongoing, disingenuous smear campaign against gun owners; deliberately slandering and defaming us in his political pandering to ultra-liberals in Ontario. His latest comments have created debate over whether to collectively take legal against Miller and company for their slander, or to more expediently recognize that everyone already knows him to be an idiot. According to an editorial in the National post:
(Miller's) choice of language is telling: He insisted many of the crime guns used in his city "are stolen from so-called legal owners." But there is nothing "so-called" about the legal status of rightful owners. They are law-abiding Canadians -- unless of course you are a spin-doctoring politician out to demonize them.As usual, the Mayor is too timid to take honest action necessary to curb gun crime, namely beefing up police in neighborhoods where most of the crimes occur. That might get him labeled "insensitive" or even racist, and that would never do. So instead, Mr. Miller has latched onto gun owners as convenient whipping boys, knowing that in our urbanized culture most voters cannot understand the allure of shooting sports.
In short, Mr. Miller is counting on the public's ignorance about guns to give his useless proposals the look of a real effort to tackle crime. His recommendations, though, will do nothing to prevent murders, shootings and other gang-related violence. Nor will they prevent the influx of illegal handguns from the United States, which are the weapon of choice in almost all Canadian gun crimes.
In a misguided bid to attempt to appear "hip" to modern communications, little David has posted videos of his rhetoric on www.youtube.com. Oddly enough though, he has declined to allow public forum responses to his work; clearly proving once again that he has NO understanding of public relations, nor does he have any intention of listening to the general public he claims to speak on behalf of.
Gee whiz. We're all very sorry for your latest PR disaster Dave! Feel free to post your trash here, but I think you'll find that we wont allow you to moderate the real public responses.
All In all, Dave's shenanigans have earned him this humorous editorial cartoon.
Enjoy your weekend, and shoot safe!
20/20 weighs in on the myths of gun control
20/20 comes clean on the realities of gun control.
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