Canada’s Martin proposes ban on handguns

[Thom Little]

Paul Martin, the Canadian prime minister, has proposed an outright ban on handguns and tougher mandatory sentences for gun-related crimes amid growing public concern over firearms violence.

Mr Martin made the proposal on Thursday in a troubled Toronto neighbourhood as part of the ruling Liberal Party's platform for the general election on January 23.

While the proposals may strike a chord on the campaign trail, it is by no means certain that they will keep firearms off the streets. Guns have been involved in two thirds of Toronto's 74 murders this year, double their rate last year. Much of the violence has been gang-related.

Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, said the proposed ban would mainly affect gun owners who were allowed to keep their weapons under “grandfathering” provisions included in recent gun-control legislation. She estimated that these exemptions covered 250,000 to 300,000 weapons.


http://news.ft.com/cms/s/59242358-6813-11da-bfce-0000779e2340.html

[Brundle_Fly]

1. Good

get em off the streets

[Kagemusha]

3. Collectors' handguns by and large aren't on the streets to begin with

And the "target shooter" exception is a massive, massive loophole... (as reported by CBC)

The "grandfathered" handguns are also strictly registered in the first place. This is as close to literally scraping the bottom of the barrel as it gets. I doubt most street crime guns are antiques, but rather, US imports.

Having said that, because phasing out collections seems a pointless and stupid exercise that's punitive to people who've played by the rules as laid down by statute law, actual money and cops being devoted to getting weapons off the streets of Canada's cities may make a difference in the real world. May.

[primavera]

5. Hear, hear!

Nice to see Canada following the example set by Germany, France, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Japan, New Zealand, well... hell, pretty much the entirety of the civilized world.

[saigon68]

2. Idiots

[dutchdemocrat]

4. Idiots?

Idiots?

Why?

[StrafingMoose]

9. Because in the Soviet Union, for example, ...

the banning of weapons was a sign of a fresh start of a wave of harsh repression.

While Martin and the people who implemented this law might have good intentions, it can be used for other nefarious deeds, later in history by other leaders - with different mindsets.

[Dutch]

19. Canada isn't the Soviet Union

And the gun-happy US is far further down the road to repression than Canada is, with or without this bill. Paranoia really ought to begin at home.

[StrafingMoose]

21. "Canada isn't the Soviet Union"

I knew someone would pull this cheap shot "Canada isn't the Soviet Union" like I didn't know... Read my whole previous post, you know it wasn't paranoiac.

[Dutch]

20. If only the US had an "idiotic" government like Canada

It might not be making such rapid progress down the crapper. Although it must be shocking to have to face the fact that people in other countries don't always feel the same way about issues as USAmericans- I guess they must just be "idiots" if they disagree with the prevailing "wisdom" of God's own country. Thank God I live in an idiotic country, where most people think thye USAmerican fetishising of the handgun is pretty idiotic, not to mention sad.

[michreject]

6. It won't change a thing.

Idiots

[President Kerry]

8. care to elaborate?

why don't we start with a comparison of gun-related crime incidence in US vs the countries mentioned above, per capita. That ought to settle it. Also, watching Bowling for Columbine might help.

[michreject]

10. It won't change anything.

From their own press release it was stated that the guns used in crimes were being smuggled from the US. So how is restricting/banning the legally possessed guns going to reduce crime?

[StrafingMoose]

11. Yep...

twilight zone. Honest people get their rights cut, the criminals get empowered.

[Mojorabbit]

25. I agree eom

[Solon]

12. Banning Americans might be more effective...

Not for the smuggling of weapons, but, I've heard that quite a few murderers in many Canadian cities were American citizens.

[Romulus]

7. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=118x119082

Of course, the Gungeon was all over this . . . .:evilgrin:

[-..__...]

13. I predict a sharp increase in tragic boating accidents on Canadian

waterways.

I guess the idiots who actually registered their firearms are about to get a good old fashioned
dose of authoritarian power.

[slackmaster]

14. Gotta love those TBAs

[GliderGuider]

15. Even in Canada, a handgun ban is but a solution in search of a problem

Canada only has about 1 million handguns, compared to the US which has over 75 million. Canada has a handgun murder rate of 0.23/100,000, compared the the US rate of 3.3/100,000. 12% of Canadian murders are committed with handguns, compared to 50% south of the border. (All 1998 numbers.)

Given this, a handgun ban is pandering of the worst sort. We don't need a ban, and any improvement it might offer to death rates is not worth the price of additional intrusion into citizens' lives. I support gun registration (though not the Liberals' Gun Registry) but bans are like zero-tolerance policies in the courts or the schools. They use sledgehammers to kill flies, and invariably fall victim to the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Ah, but it's an election campaign, and of course we're all done thinking until Jan. 23...

[doc03]

16. Should we ban baseball bats?

http://www.news-register.net/news/story/129202005_new02.asp

Everyone in West Virginia has a gun and this guy choses a baseball bat as his weapon.

[primavera]

22. If tens of thousands of people were killed by them every year...

... sure, why not? I should hope that we would ban anything that was being put to so violent a use.

[Selatius]

17. What an IDIOTIC move. This will not help the situation very much if any.

Criminals don't obey the law to begin with. Taking away guns from lawful citizens won't help the problem of criminals smuggling them in, and they're not going to comply with orders to give up their guns. If you want to tackle the situation more efficiently, then you would be better off tackling the problem of gangs as well as addressing any economic factors that contribute to higher crime rates, such as poverty and a lack of opportunity to advance.

[Pachamama]

18. None of the Canadians I know will go for that...especially when they have

seen what is happening in the US and that is from my "liberal" Canadian friends....

[hollowdweller]

23. GOP will use this to great advantage in Red States in '06 and '08

When the Canadians pull out their lists of gun registration and use them to go house to house for confiscation this will be a fantastic tool for any Republican running against any Democrat who has advocated gun registration, but has said they are just trying to control crime. Perfect validation of the NRA's "Registration leads to Confiscation" fear mantra.

Between this and the SF gun ban the GOP has got another great tool to divide rural and urban voters.

[Taverner]

24. Gun control doesn't do a thing

Taking guns away doesnt lower crime - the criminals will find ways to arm themselves anyway.

Conversely, having a handgun doesn't stop crime either.

[dutchdemocrat]

26. This is

Insane. Really. Have you ever been anywhere else they every tough guy with a small dick carries a big gun?

The UK has some of the heaviest gun laws in the world - go have a good look at their stats.

[Taverner]

27. Problem is the guns are already here

And you can't hunt each one down...