WhatFinger


Mayor David Miller, levels of ignorance

The blind leading the blind



I wasn’t surprised to see some people supporting Toronto Mayor David Miller’s call for a complete ban on the private ownership of handguns in Canada. What surprised me was the level of ignorance to which those in favor of the ban seemed to aspire.

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For some reason the majority of those in favor of the ban do not appear to know that it is already illegal to own a handgun in Canada; at least one that isn’t registered and licensed. As one of His Blondness’s apparently “blonde” supporters put it to the host of a Toronto talk radio station, “If we outlaw handguns completely then we know that anyone caught with a handgun is a criminal”. D’UHHH! We don’t need new laws to ascertain that! You don’t need to ban handguns outright to establish the fact that anyone other than a cop brandishing a handgun in public is a criminal. The laws that are currently in place are clear enough. Canada is one of the toughest jurisdictions in the civilized world in which to obtain a handgun. Since 1934 it’s been close to impossible to get one without a special permit. Since the federal government’s firearms registry came into force in 1995 it’s become tougher yet to obtain a handgun. You can’t just walk into a Canadian Tire store and ask for a Glock 17. In order to legally obtain any kind of firearm, much less a handgun, in Canada today one must apply to the Federal Firearms Registry. The applicant is then investigated to ensure he or she doesn’t have a criminal record. In all cases, male applicants who are married or recently divorced must obtain permission from their current and/or former spouses, who are required to sign off on the application. The applicant must also pass a written and a practical examination on firearms safety, without which, the registry will not grant a Possession and Acquisition License (PAL). Those seeking to obtain “restricted firearms” (i.e. handguns) have to pass a second written and practical examination to obtain a restricted firearms PAL. None of this is free or even cheap. The license fee for obtaining a firearm is $80, plus $50 for the test. The license fee for obtaining a restricted firearm is another $80, plus the cost of a test. Then the cost of licensing is $25 per gun per year. Then there is the cost of storage compliance. Firearms must be safely stored, meaning they must be locked away in a gun safe and must be secured in an unfireable condition (i.e. unloaded and trigger locked) while being stored. Ammunition must also be stored in a secure location separate and apart from the firearms themselves to avoid anyone who managed to break into the gun safe from having access to the ammo. In addition to that is the issue of transporting the firearm. If the firearm owner wanted to take his handgun, say, to a shooting range, there are restrictions about how the firearm can be transported. The handgun must be secured inside a gun case, preferably one that is lockable, it must be unloaded and trigger locked and the ammunition must be kept apart from the firearm, meaning if you are driving the gun is in the trunk and the ammo in the glove box. In addition, the gun can only be taken from the owner’s home to the shooting range and back with no side trips. So if you want to pick up a quart of milk on the way home from the range, by law you must first put the firearm back in its safe storage place and then go out again to buy the milk. Calling for a complete ban on privately owned handguns is either a desperate and cynical effort to deflect the attention from the social policies that encourage gun crimes to inanimate objects such as guns, or it betrays complete ignorance of existing laws that govern ownership of firearms. In David Miller’s case it’s the former; for those who support the ill-conceived scheme it’s clearly ignorance.


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Klaus Rohrich -- Bio and Archives

Klaus Rohrich is senior columnist for Canada Free Press. Klaus also writes topical articles for numerous magazines. He has a regular column on RetirementHomes and is currently working on his first book dealing with the toxicity of liberalism.  His work has been featured on the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, among others.  He lives and works in a small town outside of Toronto.

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