Aug 18 2005
Oh Goody, Millers on the case.
Following another batch of gun violence here in Toronto Mayor Miller has decided that the city is to become a “gun free zone”. A “legally owned and registered gun free zone” is perhaps a more accurate description. Presumably the justification for this is the use, by criminals, of stolen guns (although the primary case cited by Miller is the theft of a collection of guns from Port Hope, how his “gun free zone” would have helped in any way is never quite explained).
Of course it’s my contention that David Miller is an idiot who is desperate to be seen moving forward with an answer to increasing gun violence, and has latched on to this as a viable solution.
Yes, Miller seems to believe that criminals are reliant on the TTC when shopping for weapons, and that they will certainly not travel any distance to acquire firearms (like say the US, as Miller is more than happy to point out this is where 50% of the firearms used in our city originate).
Miller doesn’t propose assisting the federal firearms center with compliance inspections for registered gun owners to ensure they are storing their firearms properly, Miller doesn’t appeal to Toronto gun owners asking them to exceed the storage requirements to make their guns more difficult to steal. No, Miller proposes more Nanny Legislation as clearly us poor citizens cannot be trusted, and it’s up to our betters to ensure ineffective regulations are created to further penalize law abiding citizens for the acts of criminals.
Mayor Miller, please kiss my ass.
(Hat Tip: Says Uncle)
One Response to “Oh Goody, Millers on the case.”
Well, the politicians have to say something in the face of the recent explosion of shooting incidents … even if it’s something as stoopid as Councillor Michael Thompson’s suggestion that police be granted extra-Charter powers to stop and search based on skin colour.
As usual, it’s a bunch of simplistic political ’solutions’, based on the symptoms, rather than stepping up to the real social issues that are the source of these problems.
As long as our politicians remain ‘in denial’ and fail to come up with a comprehensive and meaningful plan to deal with the actual problems, putting more cops on the street and giving them extraordinary powers will not make an appreciable difference, and simply divert funds that could be better deployed elsewhere.
This problem has been decades in the making and there is no ’silver bullet’ that’s going to solve the problem overnight. Finger-pointing at black youth or registered gun-owners (or little old ladies who wear rollers in public, for that matter) is a cop-out (pun intended) that risks exascerbating, rather than helping address, the problem.