BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Feds have municipalities restricting handguns in their sights' published Feb. 19.
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I am writing to you today with the hope of providing a more balanced point of view than is found in regular TV reports regarding the current Liberal government's moves against sport and target shooters.
The fact is that Canada already has some of the strictest firearms requirements in the world. There is nothing like Second Amendment rights here, nor is there actually any constitutional guarantee for property of any sort. Shooting clubs must conform with the requirements of the provincial chief firearms officer — members of which visit shooting ranges to ensure compliance.
There seems to an assumption among the uninformed that the criminal acquisition of illegal handguns somehow evolves from those that chose, in truth, to dutifully follow the strictures of the Firearms Act and all its requirements for expensive storage components. It would seem that an organization that can illegally and successfully smuggle drugs can also successfully smuggle firearms, and that guns are a requirement of their trade. No court appeals for them.
However, what the Trudeau government has done is propose Bill C-21, which includes a proviso allowing municipalities to ban handguns. Obviously, this can only affect lawful owners.
The question of what to do, then, might well come down to the question of what to do with those who currently possess them. The Liberal approach seems to be one of shifting obligations to the municipalities. There is no recommendation or requirement that the municipality compensate lawful owners for the loss of their property.
It all brings to mind the famous quote from pastor Martin Nieman in 1945: "When they came for the social democrats I did nothing because I was not a social democrat... and when they came for me there was no one to stop them."
The legitimization of confiscation or expropriation is one that anyone who owns a fuel-powered car in Canada might be concerned with.
At any rate, the points below might provide an option that municipalities or cities might chose as a middle ground path.
Dave Lawlor
Barrie
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