Ontario Liberal MPP Mike Colle is introducing a private member’s bill entitled the “Unlawful Firearms in Vehicles Act”. The bill provides for lengthy license suspensions for drivers of vehicles in which a gun is found. The proposed legislation also allows police to seize vehicles where there is reason to believe that the vehicle contains a gun. Not surprisingly Colle, who never brags about being an original thinker, has modeled his private member’s bill after Ontario’s street racing legislation.
That legislation provides for the seizure of vehicles and immediate license suspensions for those who engage in street racing, even if those drivers are not really “racing”. Racing is now defined in McGuintyland as exceeding the speed limit by 50 km an hour; as dangerous as going 160 km an hour on a lightly travelled 400 series highway might be, it is hardly racing. As well, the street racing legislation provides for vehicle seizures and license suspensions for “performing a stunt”, whatever that may be. It’s scary but not surprising, that more proposed legislation would be modeled after the province’s street racing legislation.
The introduction of Colle’s private member’s bill follows Toronto Mayor David Miller’s launching of an online petition to attempt to get the federal government to ban handguns throughout Canada. In the idealistic world of the socialist Miller, a handgun ban would result in no more guns in Canada and therefore put an end to all the shootings that are now commonplace in the country’s major cities. At least with the call to ban handguns there is a greater connection between guns and shootings than there is between private vehicles and shootings. Under Colle’s proposed legislation, innocent owners of vehicles that are suspected of carrying guns will have their private property confiscated.
Colle said that he got the idea for his private member’s bill from talking to police who told him that they are finding more and more guns in vehicles. No doubt if these same cops were pressed, they would also admit that much of the gun violence occurs in subsidized housing complexes but we’ll never see a politician try and abolish those. Besides, that would be too difficult; if legislation were proposed to abolish housing complexes there would be petitions, demonstrations and probably riots. But the sheep that populate this future have not province haven’t yet complained about the seizing of private automobiles regardless of whether or not the owner of that vehicle has committed an illegal act. There will be no outcry against this legislation either.
Private member’s bills usually do not pass. If the majority government was in favour of this type of legislation, it would be making its way through the legislature as a government bill. But it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that enough members of all parties will jump on the anti-gun bandwagon and vote it into law. David Miller has put the gun issue front and centre and politicians as is their nature will attempt to capitalize on it. And Ontarians who are concerned about the erosion of property rights in the province can’t depend on the Conservative Party. Although leader John Tory is not a Marxist, he’s hardly a Stockwell Dayist either.
Most Ontarians will embrace this legislation on the grounds that it will never affect them because they will never be in possession of a gun and therefore will never have their private property seized. They may not have guns but most of them have cell phones and don’t think that suspensions and vehicle seizures for having a cell phone in a car won’t be coming at some point down the road.
The political elite started going after guns; now they are going after cars. Pretty soon they will run out of things to target and may even have to go after the bad guys who actually have the guns and do the shooting. When that happens, what will the world be coming to?
