Jeff Weekes
Guest opinion
In the face of these uncertain times we need to be certain of one thing. Fact.
In the opinion article “Gun debate not about guns” (The Guardian, Jan. 21, 2019) it stated that no one has ever been killed with an AR-15.
I believe there was a woman killed in 2004 in Toronto (shockingly, I know) with an AR-15 that was stolen in the early 1990s.
As a sport shooting enthusiast, we must keep our statistics clean so as to avoid stooping to the level of the virtue signaling Liberals who themselves turn a blind eye to facts and let emotion drive the legislation bus.
I wholeheartedly agree with the article. The hundreds of millions of dollars of Canadian taxpayer dollars that will be wasted on this “ban” (ahem, confiscation) will likely go up to billions, as we need to simply look back to the failed long gun registry and how much that ended up costing.
Fact: Police chiefs and law enforcement officials across our country say this ban will do nothing for public safety.
Fact: Almost all firearms used in crimes are illegally obtained/possessed by criminals. Drugs are illegal. The war on drugs is going oh so well.
Fact: Most gun deaths in Canada are suicides. Seventy-five per cent of them, as reported by the CBC. Anyone in health care can tell you that if someone is planning to end their life, simply taking away one of the multitudinous implements/means to carry out that plan will do nothing to stop them.
It is a shame that the group Doctors for Protection from Guns isn’t also seeing the facts.
Fact: Canada has a gang related violence problem. Not a problem with legal gun owners.
I could go on and on but that would be exhausting.
Is a driving force to this that Trudeau’s Liberals are simply not willing to be outdone by another young, progressive Liberal politician looking to make a statement and have warm feelings all around?
The fact is Trudeau is unwilling to tackle the hard, tough issues of mental health, crime, implementation of education and social programs to help at risk youth avoid getting into gang culture in the first place and would rather spend Canadian dollars on making people feel good.
He might as well have us all sit around and sing Kumbaya.
But then again that would mean looking at the facts.
Jeff Weekes is from Georgetown, Ont.
