Ridding our communities of gang violence is hard. It takes honesty, intelligence and dedication, three qualities seemingly lacking from our Liberal government.
Statistically, murder with firearms has risen over the last couple of years. Statistics Canada, in its Homicide in Canada, 2017 [i] report, confirmed British Columbia gangs are responsible for much of that rise, primarily in Abbotsford, Surrey and Vancouver.
“With 2.45 homicides per 100,000 population, the homicide rate in British Columbia was up 32%, making it the province’s highest rate since 2009. This increase occurred in both urban and rural areas and can be partly explained by more gang- and firearm-related homicides,” the report says.
One of British Columbia’s most effective gang interdiction programs is Abbotsford’s In It Together , whose mission is to disrupt and interrupt the flow of young people into organized crime or gangs.
They successfully diverted over 1,500 young people out of violent criminal gangs – a success by all measurable standards.
Yet Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale refused to renew funding for In It Together , despite its obvious success.
Instead: “The federal government is considering further restrictions on handguns but will stop short of an absolute ban, as the cost to buy back legally owned handguns is pegged as high as $2 billion,” writes quasi-journalist Tonda MacCharles. [ii]
The government is happy to dole out billions of Canadian taxpayer dollars to dubious causes around the globe, but it cringes at the thought of paying lawful, licensed Canadian firearm owners for property seized (stolen) by the government.
MacCharles reports the Trudeau government “doubts that a ban will have the desired effect, according to the insider with knowledge of the file.”
So they’re floating another, equally ineffective measure – central storage of firearms.
Forcing licensed gun owners to store their firearms in central repositories will also fail to stop gang violence, but it won’t cost $2 billion in compensation.
Instead, it will put thousands of pistols and restricted/prohibited long guns into a building at a shooting range – out in the middle of nowhere – because that’s where shooting ranges mostly are. They’ll put a security guard at the door during open hours to make sure the people who pick up their firearms are really licensed gun owners.
What could go wrong?
No gang would ever think of breaking into such a building, would they? They would never hurt or force a security guard to open the vaults, right? They would never lay in wait at such a facility for firearm owners who would be picking up or dropping off their firearms and ammunition, would they?
What could go wrong, indeed?
That the government might even muse about making a bad-guy gun supermarket shows how desperately out of touch this government truly is.
The protection of our firearms from theft lies in anonymity, not storage in some government inspected facility. Criminals can – and will – steal anything. But right now, they don’t know where the guns are.
But our federal government wants to tell them.
This is easily the dumbest idea this government has come up with, and they have reaped a bumper crop of dumb ideas in their first three years.
Let’s make no mistake.
This is not about public safety.
This was never about public safety.
This is and always was, about votes.
It’s cheap political theatre to try and keep Liberal MPs elected. It is not intended to stop gang violence or keep Canadians safe.
Sources
[i] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/181121/dq181121a-eng.htm
[ii] https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2018/12/06/ottawa-considers-gun-control-options-with-a-handgun-ban-seen-as-costly-and-possibly-ineffective.html
Parliamentary Day at the Range is Another Outstanding Success!