Editor:
South Surrey-White Rock MP Gordie Hogg’s federal Liberal party contemplates banning handguns. Surrey mayoral candidates agree (Woods leaves Surrey First over gun stance, Aug. 24).
I write to comment.
This notion is in response to concerns about drug- and gang-related violence; that is to say, violent criminals.
The federal Liberal solution to this problem is to take police resources away from violent criminals and, instead, have them pester legal target shooters.
This is akin to deciding that in response to concerns about house fires and forest fires, firefighters should be taken off fire trucks and be diverted to repainting fire hydrants in brighter colours – you know, to “raise awareness.”
Or as an analogy for dog owners; “because of growing awareness of coyote problems, licensed dog owners are restricted to leashes of less than one metre.”
Good ideas, right? Right?
The reader might not know that legal handgun owners: 1) have passed two courses, for two licences, under federally-certified instructors; 2) once licensed after the several-month waiting period, undergo an RCMP criminal record check daily; 3) are vetted for psych issues by several references, including spouses; 4) have firearms registered (since 1934, btw) and locked in safes, at known addresses; 5) only transport their (unloaded, cased, double-locked, registered) handguns to and from federally-approved ranges.
To the point, our involvement in violent crime is statistically zero.
Taking policing away from catching violent criminals in order to more closely monitor the single most crime-free cohort of Canadian society is a federal Liberal and Surrey mayoral priority.
If you agree, be sure to vote.
David Danylyshyn, Surrey
