Liberal Gun Control is Irrational and Ignorant.

Making A Non-Restricted Rifle Restricted Is Senseless

First, let it be known that I am all for restricting firearms from getting into the hands of criminals. However, treating all owners of firearms in Canada that use a semi-automatic carbine, as criminals, when those weapons are almost never involved in violent crimes, is simply, irrational.

So what then is the rationale for doing so? Is it because the extreme left of Liberal voters and the Liberal Party of Canada feel they will garner more votes by doing so? I should think it may well be, as the vast majority of Canadians know nothing about firearms, compared to the very few Canadian firearm owners who use a semi-automatic pistol caliber carbine rifle for varmint shooting, or marksmanship.

Let’s look at the facts.

First, only 2.8% of violent crime in Canada in 2022, (latest available data) involved the use of a firearm.

• 1.7% of violent crime injuries, were caused by a firearm.
• In 2019, only 2.2% of violent crime, involved the use of a firearm.
• Over half of firearm-related violent crimes involved a handgun, which means that only 1.1% of violent crimes used any firearm other than a handgun.
• Handguns were already prohibited weapons, so increasing the restriction on semi-automatic rifles would have made no appreciable difference to the actual number of fatalities or violent crimes in Canada.
• Only 15% of firearm related violent crimes in 2022 involved a rifle or shotgun, or a minuscule .0033% of violent firearm related crimes.

It’s obvious that the current Liberal Government of Canada would rather provide the public with smoke and mirrors than deal with the elephant in the room, which is the number of ‘illegal weapons’ being brought into Canada from the United States.

“Exclusive data obtained by Reuters for Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, shows that when handguns involved in crimes were traced in 2021, they were overwhelmingly – 85% of the time – found to have come from the United States. Furthermore, 70% of all traced guns used in crimes in Ontario came from the United States, while so far this year the U.S. share has risen to 73%, according to the data from the Ontario police’s Firearms Analysis and Tracing Enforcement (FATE) program.

Ontario is the only province with a special tracing program that seeks to identify the source of all guns used in crimes, said Scott Ferguson, head of FATE. The rest of Canada traced only 6%-10% of guns involved in crimes, according to 2019 data from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a federal agency.”

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/fighting-gun-crime-canada-has-an-american-problem-2022-07-27/#:~:text=Exclusive%20data%20obtained%20by%20Reuters,come%20from%20the%20United%20States.

The Liberal Government is simply using legal gun owners in Canada as scapegoats for a problem that has nothing to do with them. It is up to the CBSA and the RCMP to stop the flow of weapons being imported into Canada. Their failure to do so, thereby allows the Liberal Government of Canada to pretend that the problem resides with legal owners of firearms in Canada, who either hunt or shoot recreationally at gun clubs and ranges across Canada.

The fact is that any owner of a rifle with a 5 shot magazine, fed by a bolt action, can still cycle five rounds within 1-2 seconds of someone using a semi-automatic rifle. Releasing a magazine and replacing one takes a few seconds, that is all. So unless the government wants to ban all firearms in Canada, it will make little or no difference to someone determined to commit a mass shooting.

There is absolutely no rationale for restricting semi-automatic rifles and shotguns from Canadians other than to pretend that the Federal Government of Canada is acting to control guns in Canada. In fact, they are accomplishing nothing of the kind. Canadian gun owners who hold legitimate firearms licenses are not the problem or the cause of increasing violent firearms use in Canada, and the government knows it.

What they should be doing is increasing inspections of cargo and all forms of transportation into Canada, from those crossing the border in vehicles, to sea cans and rail shipments. But doing so requires manpower, equipment and substantive expense, whereas pretending the issue is due to legal Canadian gun owners, strikes a chord with the voting public, and costs very little, especially when you pay an owner thirty cents on the dollar for their weapon.

Second, Canada’s immigration system should do a better job vetting immigrants to Canada, as many of the problems associated with the use of illegal weapons stems from gangs whose members often have immigrated from countries where gangs and violent crime are part of everyday life.

It is ignorant, self-serving and reprehensible that Canadian hunters and recreational shooters shall not only not be able to use the firearms they legally purchased under Canadian law, but the fact that they will not be fairly compensated if they do in fact turn their firearms over to the RCMP for destruction.

I personally will not vote for the Liberal Party of Canada again, even though I have voted Liberal for the last 54 years. My reasons extend far beyond the issue of firearms, but between the Liberals ignoring the needs of the Canadian Armed Forces, illogical immigration policies, and not standing up for Canadians in relation to trade and the likely tariffs to soon be visited upon Canadian goods, (by grovelling to an autocrat), I’ve finally reached my level of tolerance.

Approximately 2.35 million Canadians have PAL licenses in Canada. The latest figure for the popularity of the Liberal Party of Canada is less than 23% of the electorate. Remove another 4.7 million Canadian gun owners and their spouses, and the Liberals will fall to the third amongst the three major parties.

If you treat gun owners like criminals, you deserve to find yourself without power in Canada.

The firearms issue simply was the last straw. I will vote for the opposition from now on.