Yes, he announced his new Firearms Advisory Committee chairman and vice-chairs on February 10, 2017, but he still hasn’t announced who else will sit on that committee.
Yes, he goes along with the RCMP’s ongoing administrative assault against gun owners. Yet even that is not an issue of doing something, but rather one of not doing anything to upset the RCMP’s apple cart.
For the most part, little but silence emanates from Minister Goodale’s office on the issue of firearms.
In Justin Trudeau’s Mandate Letter to Minister Goodale – once you wade through all Trudeau’s patting himself on the back and get to the meat of the issue – his instructions are simple: “Take action to get handguns and assault weapons off our streets by working with the Minister of Justice to strengthen controls on hand-guns and assault weapons, including by repealing some elements of Bill C-42.”
In fact, out of twelve action items listed by the Prime Minister, only one of them addressed firearms. With eleven other priorities and Canadian shootings, outside of Toronto and Vancouver, at all-time lows, there isn’t much to do on the firearm’s file.
The RCMP and Toronto Police continue to scapegoat licensed, law-abiding firearm owners for the actions of gang members and thugs, but Minister Goodale appears to apply some common sense to those issues.
In fact, he ignores them.
Anti-gun “experts” like Iain Overton continue to decry “gun violence” in Canada. For example, Overton’s April 2016 article “Canada has a gun problem” sounds scary until you examine the source for his claim that 80% of Canadian firearm deaths are suicides. He links to a 20-year-old study as proof of his theory. We also don’t have 5,000 suicides per year, as Overton claims in his article. In fact, for the years 2008 through 2012, that number never breaks 4,000 according to Statistics Canada.
Despite Overton’s hyperbolic claims to the contrary, Canada’s numbers on shooting deaths haven’t changed much in decades. We average 195 shooting deaths per year. Despite the outcry each December 6th, men are still far more likely to be murdered (71%) than women (29%).
According to Statistics Canada, of the 604 murder victims in 2015 only 30% (181) were killed with a firearm. Almost as many Canadians beat their victims to death (23%) as shot them (30%) and more stabbed their victims to death (37%).
Instead of a gun problem, pretend experts like Overton have a serious credibility problem. When the best they can do is use 20-year old data to make their case you know Canada is doing okay on the firearm issue.
Given that reality, it makes sense that firearm issues aren’t at the top of Minister Goodale’s to-do list.
Sources:
Iain Overton: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/why-canada-has-a-gun-problem/article29642837/
1998 study Overton quotes: http://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/wd98_4-dt98_4/toc-tdm.html
Cdn Homicide numbers, 2004-2014: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/85-002-x/2015001/article/14244/tbl/tbl03-eng.htm
Cdn Homicide Infographic 2015: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2016008-eng.htm
Homicides by Method (2015): http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/legal01-eng.htm
Homicides by number and province.territory: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/legal12a-eng.htm
CBSA, GTA Police Stop Major Gun Smuggling Ring