Thank you MP Blaine Calkins, for saying exactly what every law-abiding gun owner in the country is thinking.
When speaking in the House of Commons on Feb. 10 in opposition to a Liberal Party plan to ‘reduce firearms’ in Canada by following an Australian gun control model to buy-back firearms, Calkins borrowed a line from the famous actor and gun lobbyist Charlton Heston.
“If the Liberal leader wants my guns Mr. Speaker, he can pry them from my cold dead hands,” said Calkins.
In 1995, the Grits used their majority government to push through the Firearms Act, which required gun owners to register their weapons. The program was then a pain to lawful gun owners and a burden to taxpayers until it was abolished in October of 2011.
Not only did the program cost too much and restrict law-abiding gun owners, it didn’t work. It was supposed to tie gun violence to the owners of the guns involved.
But, criminals don’t obey the law and hence didn’t register their guns. That’s what makes them criminals.
Yet, even though they have done it once and it failed, the Liberals are going to try enacting a similar gun control model again. Thankfully, our local MP is already letting the opposition know that this isn’t what we want.
Calkins, and others, have argued the Australian model is even stricter than Canada’s previous gun control programs. High-powered rifles are not the only ones that are regulated by it, but rimfire rifles, air rifles, even paintball guns as well.
It is also unfair as the Australian government can forcibly buy-back firearms it deems not necessary to their owners. Gun buyers use their own money to buy the firearms and then have their taxpayer dollars used to buy them back again, effectively making gun owners pay for the guns twice, all to not own them in the end, said Calkins.
Fair points and well made - just a few reasons why such a plan should not be followed in Canada, but there is a bigger debate to be had here as well.
The Liberals are right. If the Canada does choose to follow a gun control program based on the Australian model, it will reduce the number of guns in Canada.
However, it will do so only by posing restrictions on respectable Canadian gun owners who obey the law. Criminals who use guns will go unpunished.
Instead of punishing the Canadians who aren’t breaking the law, why not go after the ones who are? Firearms are not the cause of gun-related violence, they are only the tools used in such incidents.
As the saying goes, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” The Liberals should focus on what is causing crimes, not what is used to cause them.