Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Mayor Miller's Hand-gun Ban Necessary

If I was to ever go hunting -- and that's a *BIG* if, considering I don't eat meat -- I highly doubt my weapon of choice would be a handgun.

For hunting, handguns are just not practical unless, of course, the game you are hunting is human.

While gun proponents have developed a litany of reasons why handguns should not be banned, I have yet to hear a reasonable, rational reason.

Yes, I empathize with gun collectors -- passionate collecting can and does occr, but I doubt that any of these true collectors are clamouring for one of the mass-produced, relatively new weapons that do little, but cause havoc.

Don't give me "freedom of association" crap. You love to shoot them -- then develop clubs where you can not only shoot the tool, but KEEP the tool. There is NO reason why you should have to take that contraption home. Period. Particularly with the plethora of non-lethal (theoretically) tools available to the general public for self-protection.

So, the recent announcment by Toronto's Mayor, David Miller, certainly met *my* approval.

The campaign's centre-piece is an online petition posted on the City's
website (goto: www.toronto.ca/handgunban).

This allows Canadians, coast to coast to add their name to a call for a Canada-wide handgun ban. (For those so inclined to canvas neighbourhoods and workplaces, a print-friendly version of the petition is also available on the website).

Mayor Miller launched this campaign by saying: "Handguns are designed for one purpose and that is to kill people and have no place in our society. Statistics show that in jurisdictions with gun bans, supply is limited and shootings are less common.

Miller will "personally deliver" the petition to Parliament Hill in June.

Want to read more??

Goto:
Globe and Mail Globe
The Star Star
Canadian Business Canadian Business
National Post (contrarian angle) National Post

1 comment:

Unknown said...

What a ridiculous notion. It is a sport. Getting a handgun license is one of the most difficult applications in Canada. Only 4 out of 104 handguns that were used in crimes last year were legally registered and bought. Miller's assertion that 40% of handgun crimes are committed with legal handguns is just plain wrong. It is merely a strategy by Miller to get votes because of his inability to actually do anything about gang violence in Toronto.