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This Editorial also appeared in The Ottawa Sun.
PUBLICATION: The Winnipeg Sun -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- GUN CONTROL BORDERS ON THE RIDICULOUS -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We were treated to a sobering reminder this week of just how easily criminals in Canada are able to arm themselves, despite our government's massive spending on a registry that was supposed to keep track of all the guns in the country. The simple fact is that the bad guys aren't lining up at the hardware store or the local gun shop to buy themselves weapons. Guns, knives, switchblades -- even mace -- are pouring across the Canada-U.S. border at an alarming rate, according to a report from the Canada Border Service. More than 25,000 prohibited weapons, including 5,446 guns, were seized by Canada Customs officers at the U.S. border over a five-year period, the report shows. If that many are being confiscated, it makes us wonder about the numbers that are slipping through, and getting into the hands of people with criminal intent. We can understand the sentiment behind the establishment of a national gun registry in Canada, which began to take shape shortly after the horrific killings of 14 women at Montreal's Ecole polytechnique in December 1989. But it was a concept that was flawed from the start and, like most efforts of the federal Liberals, wound up costing us a huge amount of money (at last count more than $1 billion) while not yielding any real benefit. The border report simply adds to the evidence that those who want weapons for nefarious purposes are still getting them. "The fact that the border service has stopped that number of guns ... is a testament to the good work that they do," said Senator Colin Kenny, chairman of the Senate national defence and security committee, "but we'll never know what they missed." Canadians, he added, should be concerned about the stats. We are, and we think it's a good time to remind the government that it should be punishing criminals, not their weapons. Let's get tough on violent crime and give the courts the power to lock up nutbars like James Roszko instead of turning them loose to reoffend. Zero tolerance
and tough prison terms will go a lot further towards making our streets
safe than the gun registry ever could. |