First, Mark Holland stood in the House of Commons and inferred Canadian firearm owners are thugs:
“What thugs do is to make sure they are able to keep weapons in their car and not have to answer any questions. That is what they are going to do. They are going to put the weapons in the car and drive wherever they go. They know that if they are pulled over by a police officer, all they have to do is list one of a million different places to explain where they are going.”
He probably didn’t mean to call all licensed, law-abiding firearm owners thugs, but those are the only people who can explain their way out of the police situation Holland described.
Then Liberal Member of Parliament Pam Damoff stood in the House of Commons:
“I keep hearing this term law abiding gun owners. And I appreciate that the majority of people who own firearms are law abiding gun owners. Marc Lepine, who killed fourteen women a Polytechnique, also had a firearms license. Alexandre Bissonnette, who killed six men in the mosque in Quebec City, had a valid firearms license. So, you know, we talk about law abiding firearms owners. A lot of times they are until they’re not.”
Not to be outdone by his fellow parliamentarians, Bob Nault, M.P. (Kenora) stood in the House of Commons and launched his attack:
“I think one of our major concerns in today’s gun scenario, and we see it in the U.S. and in Canada, is that there are a lot of mental issues with people who have firearms .”
If Mr. Nault’s claim was true, the RCMP would revoke hundreds of thousands of firearm licences every year. They don’t.
We understand political rhetoric but when elected Members of Parliament, speaking on behalf of the government, misunderstand our community as gravely as these three individuals do, it is no longer political rhetoric but political character assassination.
Canada’s responsible firearm owners are the second largest group of sporting enthusiasts in the country, bested only by sport fishing. Golf, the next most popular sport, has 1.5 million participants and hockey trails with 1.2 million.
These Liberal Party stooges view 2.1 million federally licenced, RCMP-vetted firearm owners as mentally deranged –– violent criminals ready to snap at the slightest provocation.
Why?
The visceral hatred these statements reveal signals a much deeper issue. Replace “gun owner” with any other identifiable group and the outrage would be instantaneous, monumental and catastrophic to the career of the person uttering such words.
Imagine if Mark Holland said: “What Metis’ do is to make sure they are able to keep weapons in their car and not have to answer any questions.”
Or if Pam Damoff said: “Women are law abiding until they are not.”
Or if Bob Nault said: “…that there are a lot of mental issues with Quebeckers who own sports cars.”
They would be forced to resign in disgrace amid a parliamentary and media furor.
So why is denigrating the character of 2.1 million Canadians, men and women who have not broken any laws, who are federally licensed to own firearms, and who are vetted daily by the RCMP, deemed to be acceptable by our government?
Sources:
- https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/house/sitting-307/hansard#Int-10181133
- https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/house/sitting-316/hansard#Int-10225883
- http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/XRender/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20180618/-1/29616
- https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2013/pc-ch/CH24-1-2012-eng.pdf
Dine with MP Raquel Dancho at Stick To Your Guns Dinner 2023