If any Second Amendment advocate wants to see the future desired by gun rights opponents in the U.S., they need to look no further than north of the border and the example set by our Canadian neighbors.
The handgun ban enacted two years ago and praised by government officials as the solution to criminal violence is in tatters. So much so that the Toronto Police Association (TPA), which is in the best position to know, blasted the move as grossly ineffective.
Radical Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in late 2022, enacted what he described as a “freeze” on handgun sales and transfers. This would, in his esteemed judgment, clamp down on surging violence in the provinces.
Trudeau proclaimed at the time that citizens “have the right to feel safe in their homes, in their schools, and in their places of worship. With handgun violence increasing across Canada, it is our duty to take urgent action to remove these deadly weapons from our communities.”
The prime minister claimed that eradicating handguns would bring safety to the nation’s children.
So, how did the grand social experiment work out?
According to the TPA, not well at all. The association skewered a self-congratulatory statement by Trudeau this week on X crowing that his government chose “your safety over the gun lobby.”
The police association countered with facts. It posted, “Criminals did not get your message. Our communities are experiencing a 45% increase in shootings and 62% increase in gun-related homicides compared to this time last year.”
The group added guns continue to pour across Canada’s massive southern border.
The TPA called Trudeau’s statement “out of touch and offensive to victims of crime and police officers everywhere.” Those on the front lines fighting criminal violence concluded that the handgun ban simply “has not worked.”
Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to reverse the handgun ban if elected and noted that law enforcement vehemently disagrees with the government’s pervasive gun control.
Poilievre wrote, “Police call out Trudeau’s appalling record on handgun crime, which is up 116% since he took office after he opened the borders to smugglers and reduced sentences for gun criminals.”
Sound familiar?
Statistics Canada noted that the most recent data from 2022 shows that gun-related crime is at its highest in a decade. That information predates the current handgun ban, during which such activities soared even higher.
Why are Toronto police so outraged over the controversial gun control enacted by Trudeau? Ontario accounted for a staggering 70% of the dramatic jump in violent crimes, a shrill warning that the current system is failing law-abiding citizens.
The Canadian Shooting Sports Association (CSSA) is the counterpart to U.S. Second Amendment advocacy groups. Executive Director Tony Bernardo explained to the Western Standard that he and his organization understand the anger expressed by law enforcement over ineffective gun bans.
“It must be beyond maddening to see the government behaving this way, where such real problems rear their heads. People are actually dying on the streets.” Bernardo railed against the Canadian tactic that is all too familiar to Americans, which is to pursue rights enjoyed by law-abiding citizens instead of the criminal underclass.
He explained, “It doesn’t take much intellect to figure out that people who lawfully register and store their firearms and use them at shooting ranges are not the same people that are shooting up the streets of Toronto at night.”
No, it does not. But Trudeau does not make this distinction and, instead of targeting those responsible for the current crime wave, continues to move against those most likely to be victimized through violence.
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