Toronto Mayor's War On Gun Owners

Toronto Mayor's War On Gun Owners

05-30-2008
http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=862915




ONTARIO- ONTARIO FEDERATION OF ANGLERS AND HUNTERS--(Marketwire - May 30, 2008) - Not content to rest on his laurels and his ill-fated pursuit of a ban on handguns as a means of stopping gun crime in Toronto, Mayor David Miller has now turned his sights on legal, law abiding recreational sport shooters, which will impact upon shooters like Avianna Cho, a member of the Canadian Olympic team headed for Beijing in August.

A report entitled, "City of Toronto: City-Based Measures to Address Gun Violence" will be considered by the powerful Executive Committee of Council on June 3, 2008. The Planning and Growth Committee will consider a zoning bylaw on September 10, 2003.

"By canceling the leases of the Scarborough Rifle Club and the CNRA Gun Club at Union Station, and targeting law-abiding firearms owners, manufacturers and distributors, the Mayor is once again laying the blame for escalating gun crime in Toronto at the doorstep of the legal, heavily regulated, licensed and trained firearms community, instead of focusing his efforts on addressing the real causes of these crimes", said Jack Hedman, President of the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters.

Earlier attempts by Mayor Miller to ban handguns, which are ostensibly already banned and tightly controlled, have failed to impress the federal government, who rightly pointed out that the measures being pursued under their recently passed crime bill, including increased border enforcement, more police on the street and more stringent use of sentencing provisions for gun crimes, will more effectively target the root causes of gun crimes.

The O.F.A.H. is alarmed by the fact that the Mayor either doesn't understand the problem, or worse still, doesn't want to understand, having found an easy and convenient scapegoat for the ills that plague his city. Legal, law-abiding firearms owners should not be the focus of his crusade, when it's the access to and use of illegal firearms by criminals and gang members to commit crimes that needs to be addressed. Worse still, the Mayor makes statements that are not reflective of reality, and conflict with statements made by his own Chief of Police who told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Justice that close to 80percent of seized firearms have been smuggled in across the border. The Mayor's inflammatory rhetoric, including irrational statements that guns are 'routinely' stolen from 'so-called' legal owners and are responsible for the glut of guns on the streets of Toronto may play well on the six o'clock news, but are a gross misrepresentation of fact.

"Make no mistake, while the report going before the Executive Committee is referred to as a 'staff' report, the Mayor's fingerprints are all over it," said Mr. Hedman. "Fortunately, several Toronto Councillors see this for what it is, and have rightly characterized the Mayor's vilification of the legal firearms community as nothing more than 'cosmetic', 'political junk food' and 'an insult to law abiding citizens'.

The suggestion that legal shooting clubs, and recreational sport shooters are in anyway responsible for the ongoing spate of gun crimes in Toronto is dismissed by others, including the Deputy Chief Firearms Officer for Ontario, who noted that he has received absolutely no complaints about either of the clubs targeted by the Mayor. The Deputy CFO also stated that the closure of ranges and attempts to ban recreational firearms from Toronto won't stop legal owners from joining clubs elsewhere in the GTA, nor will it prevent them from owning, purchasing and continuing to use firearms in a safe, legal and regulated manner.

The Mayor's demonization of legal firearms owners, and his insistence on casting them as the villains of this piece is particularly disturbing, since a review of legal firearms ownership in Ontario clearly demonstrates that the GTA, and in particular the City of Toronto, has the fewest number of legal, registered firearms anywhere in Ontario. If this doesn't tell him that it's not the legal firearms owners who are responsible for the carnage on the streets of Toronto, then what will? In 2005, on 4 of 129 homicides were committed with a registered firearm, and 6 of 108 in 2006. What does it take for the Mayor to understand that it is the use of illegal, unregistered firearms that are available on any street corner, that are the problem?

It's time that Mr. Miller put an end to the empty oratory and actually turned his attention to the real issue at hand. It's also time that he stopped portraying legal, responsible, law-abiding recreational shooters like Avianna Cho as the villains, who are not now, nor have they ever been, part of the problem. In light of two recent public opinion polls, one conducted by Toronto radio station AM640, in which 94 percent of respondents said that the Mayor's proposals won't curb gun violence; and a second on Victoria radio station CFAX1070, in which 95 percent responded that it makes no sense to ban responsible gun use is safe settings, the public seems to have an equally jaundiced view of the Mayor's proposal.

The bottom line is this: gun bans in countries like England, Australia, Wales, Jamaica and others has not reduced gun crime, in fact, the opposite has occurred. Similarly, the proposal to shut down legal recreational shooting ranges and banning firearms companies from setting up shop in Toronto will not stop criminals and gangs from acquiring illegal firearms and committing crimes.

If the Mayor ever puts forward a practical idea that actually makes sense and will make a difference, legal firearms owners are likely to step up and support him. Until then, he should put his time to better uses and spare us the useless window dressing.

With 83,000 members and 655 member clubs, the O.F.A.H. is the largest, nonprofit fish and wildlife conservation organization in Ontario.

/For further information: Lezlie Goodwin
Communications Coordinator