With the recent shootings in Toronto, the mayor David Miller has repeated his appeal to the federal government to ban all handguns in Canada. I would support such a ban and I’d like to think that many others would as well.
Handguns have no other purpose than for shooting other people. Despite those that must possess a handgun for workplace use, such as police or military, I can see no reason why anyone must own a personal use handgun. Handguns lack any social purpose other than nefarious ones — unless of course you’re from the States — where they appear as their own living, breathing ‘entity’. We must resist falling into the influence from the US culture and the outrageous arguments from gun lobbyists about self-defence and rights under their constitution. The bottom line is that we aren’t the US, nor do we want to be.
When I was younger, we lived in a country which had a ban on personal ownership of all guns. Even as a young kid, I felt safe walking around on my own, taking the train to school — it was a society that we generally felt secure. The only persons who could legally possess guns were the police, but I imagine there was an illegal trade as well. We’re not going to prevent all handguns from entering the country by illegal means and the criminals would find their own ways to get handguns. However, at least they wouldn’t be able to steal guns from private citizens, borrow from a legitimate owner or order them through the States.
A perfect example of a successful ban on guns is the automatic weapon prohibition. Occasionally, an automatic rifle shows up on the radar during a police seizure, but it is a rare event. Using this as an example to a handgun ban, we could surely reduce the prevalence of handgun crimes to a rareity. Its a long term proposal, but definately worth it to save lives.
